


Open The Door

by Erisette



Series: Dolls [4]
Category: ASTRO (Band), B1A4, Oh My Girl (Band), VIXX, f(x)
Genre: 4 walls (MV), Alternate Universe, Baby (MV), Blood and Violence, Breathless (MV), Eternity (MV), Fairy Tale Elements, Found Families, Gen, Groups other than VIXX are guest appearances, Hurt/Comfort, Lost Child (MV), N is VIXX's mom, Platonic Cuddling, Rise As One (MV), Shinhwa's Venus (MV), Sweet Girl (MV), Team as Family, The Closer (MV), Voodoo Doll (MV), Windy Day (MV), everyone should be friends, the power of friendship!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-04-27 14:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14427165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erisette/pseuds/Erisette
Summary: In which six dolls that have become real (have become family) start to learn about going to rather than going away--and get perhaps more than they had bargained for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (I wanted to know what happened next: and here it is, or at least the beginning of it. Thanks to XIL who let me bounce ideas and listened kindly to me complain.)

_Cat, if you go outdoors, you must walk in the snow._  
_You will come back with little white shoes on your feet,_  
_little white shoes of snow that have heels of sleet._  
_Stay by the fire, my Cat. Lie still, do not go._  
_See how the flames are leaping and hissing low,_  
_stay with me, Cat. Outside the wild winds blow._

 _Outdoors the wild winds blow, Mistress, and dark is the night,_  
_strange voices cry in the trees, intoning strange lore,_  
_and more than cats move, lit by our eyes' green light,_  
_on silent feet where the meadow grasses hang hoar--_  
_Mistress, there are portents abroad of magic and might,_  
_and things that are yet to be done. Open the door!_

**_-Elizabeth Coatsworth, "On a Night of Snow"_ **

* * *

 

MVs referenced: B1A4's Sweet Girl, ASTRO's Breathless/Baby/Crazy Sexy Cool. 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/39875063970/in/dateposted-public/)

 

 

 

Having decided that one wishes to do a thing does not always make it clear how or when or where: so despite agreeing that it might be good to go _back to_ rather than merely _away_ , the dolls found themselves at something of a standstill.

Sun had discovered something, in one of the corners of the room, and then torn down one of the pieces of paper on the walls. He took his finds to a clear space on the floor and started doing something with them diligently, as the others gathered from where they had been scattered, drinking from the sink in turns and carefully looking around the room for anything useful. "What is that you have, Sun?" Starlight asked. Sun beamed up at him, holding them out on display.

"Markers!" What he was doing, it was now clear, was drawing something on the blank white back of the paper, long careful strokes of the marker that left black lines without wavering or hesitation. "See, here, this is where we are--" it was drawn as a smallish square, identified with a little simplified drawing of a bed: "--and there's where we _were_...." with a swipe of red to illustrate the magic door, leading to a round room captioned with an apple. When he had drawn out their whole journey, back to a skinny edifice topped with flames, he went back over it with the red marker, adding more lines here and there.

"The doors we didn't go through," Brother noted with interest, and Sun nodded eagerly, pointing at him with the marker.

"Yes! Since we're deciding. Do we go straight back to the witches' house?" He paused for a moment: the house in question was identified by a cat, and he went back and added missing whiskers. "Or look at the other doors? Maybe they'll KNOW about other doors, then won't it be helpful to have the drawings? I like drawing! It's fun! Do you think--" he was interrupted by a rising series of clunks and clatters that crescendoed in the wardrobe doors bursting open and six people falling through them. They were talking and laughing as they fell, which trailed away into surprised silence as they took in the six dolls watching them.

(In the silence, Sun carefully added another red line leading off of the bedroom-square.)

"Hello!" Burst out one of the people, who was small and dark-haired with large bright eyes. "Are you in our bedroom, or are we in _your_ bedroom that _looks like_ our bedroom?"

"It isn't our bedroom, so if it looks like yours it probably is," Starlight said. The new arrivals--there were three tall and three small--got themselves to their feet and the dolls did the same, Sun taking his drawing up with him. "We are sorry if you are upset that we're in it--we went through a door and found ourselves here, so we slept."

"It isn't a problem," said the small one with dark reddish hair, his eyes almost closing with his smile. "It's not like we were using it! We went through a door ourselves--"

"Our wardrobe has never been a door before!" The tallest one with the pale hair interjected.

"--and didn't realize how long we'd been gone til just now," he finished, ignoring the interruption with good humor. "I'm Jinjin. These are MJ, Eunwoo, Moonbin, Rocky and Sanha." Each boy nodded as his name was said, and Eunwoo put in,

"Did you say you came through a door? Like, a door from the street outside, or...."

The dolls pointed at the door they'd come through. "That one," Laughter said.

"But that's just our closet...?" Moonbin looked confused as he said it, and he and Sanha went to investigate the door in question, as Starlight took a moment to introduce themselves to the boys whose room it was. Moonbin and Sanha had opened the door and stuck their heads in and now one of their muffled voices said, "Yeah, it's just our closet!"

"We _did_ come through, though," Sun insisted, sticking the marker behind his ear and going to join them fearlessly despite Cedar's aborted attempt to hold him back. He joined them and they opened the door wider so he could see too and his whole face twisted in confusion.

"Let me see," Laughter said, and soon everyone was standing in two slightly-separate packs to look into the unassuming small room filled with clothes, with a long mirror at the end. Sun and Sanha waved at themselves in the mirror, MJ sticking his head between them to make a face. "Close the door," Laughter suggested, "And then one of _us_ open it." They did: and when Brother turned the knob and pulled the door open it was a black tunnel behind it.

"...huh," Jinjin said thoughtfully. Then: "Could you put the closet back for a second? We need to put on our work clothes." Rocky nodded, and Eunwoo made a distressed face, gently jogging Brother's elbow.

"Oh! Right! We shouldn't be late." The door was closed, then opened again to the closet, and he added importantly, "We can do whatever we want when it's closed, but running the shop is what we were _created_ for."

"You were created?" Kitten said, and all six of them looked up at hearing his voice for the first time. He quailed slightly under their combined attention, but Starlight rested his hand on his back and he rallied to finish: "Not born or grown but made?"

" _I_ grew!" Sanha said smugly, and Moonbin threw a pair of pants at his head.

"Yeah," Rocky said. "Were you made too, then? What for?" There was a bustle as the rest of them were pulling out articles of clothing, trading them back and forth to the proper owner and changing into them without a care for the strangers there with them. The dolls watched with interest to clearly see for the first time bodies without any of the marks that complicated their own skins.

"Yes," Starlight replied to his question, since Kitten seemed disinclined to speak more. "We were made to be toys."

"In a good way or a bad way?" MJ asked, finished with his changing and finger-combing his hair into order.

" _Is_ there a good way?" Brother asked.

He considered for a second, then made a face. "No, I would guess not."

"Would you like some clothes?" Jinjin said. He looked over their apparel, reaching up to tug at the holes in Starlight's sweater. Starlight froze, but began to thaw out slightly as Jinjin's touch proved harmless: he was walking his hand across his chest, measuring the width of it, then going behind him to judge the length of his back too. "Moonbin's stuff should fit you, I'd think. Unless you don't want to change? Does it have, like, sentimental value?"

"No, I hate it," Starlight said simply, and started to smile at him. "Thank you. I would love some new clothes."

"Well then," Jinjin said cheerfully, taking Starlight's hand to lead him to the closet, and as if he'd given the order his brothers each started to dig for things to fit one or another doll. Rocky found a pair of boots and held them out, patiently, until Kitten slowly reached out to take them: Sun and MJ were arguing over colors: Moonbin was helping Laughter find things that were as pleasant to touch as they were to look at: Eunwoo was giving Cedar a choice between shoes that laced up and some that slipped on: and Sanha was complaining stridently while trying to find a shirt that would fit Brother, who was as tall as he but twice as wide. The result, when everyone had been outfitted to their satisfaction, was very piecemeal but left no one wanting.

"We really do have to get to the store," Jinjin said apologetically. "You can stay here if you want, or you could come to the store...."

"Thank you, but we were planning to go," Starlight said. Impulsively, he stepped away from the other dolls to bend down a little and hug him. "Although now I'm a little concerned about taking the same door we came in, if it can change like that...."

"You could talk to the guys at Sweet Girl," Eunwoo offered suddenly. "A lot of the places around here use a similar sort of magic to fit more rooms in a place than should really fit there--our store does too--but they can explain that sort of thing better than almost everyone."

"They're _real people_ ," Sanha said, as one imparting vital information, and the dolls looked at him in confusion.

"You aren't real people?" Cedar asked, concerned.

"We're real," Jinjin said: and, "We're people," MJ said at the same time.

"We're just not Real People," Moonbin finished, and the dolls nodded in understanding.

They went together down a flight of stairs exiting the building, as the whole while Moonbin gave them information about the people they were being sent to meet: "Jinyoung is kind of in charge; he can seem cold, but he's a good person. Dongwoo is the best at magic among them; he's tall and quiet. Junghwan and Seonwoo are noisy and seem kind of careless but they are also good people, and Chanshik is the youngest but he has good sense." He smiled at them, a very sweet smile that transformed his face. "Even if they can't help you, they might have an idea where to start at least."

They parted ways at the bottom of the stairs, as the dolls were pointed in the direction of the place: Jinjin made a point of shaking everyone's hand, which went over better with some than others, before sending them off with a smile and assurance that they were welcome to borrow their bedroom any time they needed it.

"They were kind," Kitten said softly once they were out of sight.

"You don't sound very happy about that," Laughter said. Kitten didn't reply except to shrug.

"Sanha was cute," Cedar admitted.

"They were _all_ cute." Starlight sounded very pleased as he said it. "I think it's a good sign, don't you? Doesn't it seem like good people are more common in the world than bad? At first I thought we'd never fit in anywhere but perhaps we will after all."

 

* * *

 

The door was easy to find, with the bright lights above that spelled out the name _Sweet Girl._ "Just a normal door, I think," Laughter told them, and they went through. Indoors was dimly lit but inviting for all that, with cool blue and purple lights scattered through out the long low-ceilinged room and bright spotlights illuminating a low platform in front of a wall draped with dark curtains.

"Coming!" a muffled voice rang out. There were three doors on the wall to their right, opposite the spotlit platform, and ahead of them across the room full of tables and chairs the wall was interrupted by what seemed to be a fairly long hallway: it was from this that the voice came. Light spilled into the hallway from an opened door, and a smiling man stepped out of it and hurried out to meet them. "Hello! Sorry, we're still opening up, it's going to be a long day but it hasn't fully started yet! Can we help you?" The man paused with several tables still between them and looked them over; this would be Junghwan. "Ah...sorry. Just a minute!" He didn't move closer, but he still smiled warmly, even as he turned around and bellowed, "Hyung! Dongwoo-hyung! Come here, hurry up!" He then turned and rolled his eyes at the dolls, even as Kitten flinched a little at his volume. "Not that he has ever hurried-up in his life...."

"I heard that." From another door Dongwoo came, shrugging into a soft sweater. He was pretty tall (only Brother and maybe Cedar would be any taller than him) and while his face was soft his body looked strong enough that Kitten decided to be more wary of him than the Sun-like Junghwan. "Hello there. What seems to be the problem?"

Starlight took the lead. "We were sent here by Jinjin and the others--" ("MJ and Eunwoo and Moonbin and Rocky and Sanha," interjected Sun, who considered names important) "--yes, they said you might be able to answer some questions? About magic?"

"Magic's the question on our end, too," Junghwan said, pulling Dongwoo towards himself and angling him in the direction of the dolls. "I'm not crazy, right?"

"Well..." Dongwoo drawled, but looked them over carefully. He pulled in a deep breath, and his brow furrowed. "Ah. I don't mean to pry...but the magic you all smell of...isn't exactly...."

"We didn't choose any of it," Laughter said, flicking back his fringe. "And we are making our own decisions now." He sounded confident, but Kitten thought his hands were a little nervous, so he crowded close enough to make his presence known.

"They shouldn't smell," Starlight put in mildly, disingenuous. "I made them all shower." He startled small laughs out of Brother and Cedar, and a much more racous cackle from Junghwan.

"Fair enough," Dongwoo said. "What is your magic problem?" Junghwan pulled a chair out from the table and spun it around, sitting in it backwards and leaning on the back of it to look at them with fascinated eyes: Dongwoo sat more slowly and decorously. There weren't enough chairs at the table for all the dolls to sit, so they pulled them away and stood around the edge; Starlight in the middle, flanked by Sun and Laughter, with the other three hemming them in beside and behind.

"We've been travelling," Starlight said, "Through the doors, you know? The ones that aren't just doors. Last night we went through one that came out in their bedroom--Jinjin and everyone's--and they said it had never been magical before."

"It was just a closet to them," Brother said.

"Yes, exactly. And they went through a door in their wardrobe last night as well, and they said that had never been a door either." Behind Starlight, Kitten leaned against his back. He didn't know why he liked to lean on the others more than he liked to have them lean on him, but he knew that Starlight would never push him away and so he leaned with purpose.

Dongwoo's and Junghwan's eyebrows had been raising slowly as the explanation went on, and they exchanged a look when the dolls stopped speaking. "Just recently?" Junghwan said; so many emotions moved across his face at any given moment that it was hard to pick one out alone, but Kitten thought that the strongest one at the moment was unease.

"Just last night," Dongwoo said, shifting over and resting his chin on the chair back next to Junghwan's. "Huh."

"Will this help?" Sun said brightly, and unfurled his drawing across the table.

"You made a map?" Junghwan cried. Sun grinned back at him, nodding, and he clapped, his whole body moving with delight. "That's perfect!" He abandoned his chair to half-crawl on to the table, peering nearsightedly at all the details. "Red for portals?"

"Exactly!" Sun made sure his map was in the middle, half-on the table himself; Cedar hooked a hand in the waistband of his pants, making sure he couldn't go too far, and Kitten stretched out his toes to lightly kick the back of Cedar's calf in solidarity, reassured that he wasn't the only one who remembered to always be cautious. "So there's the one we went through--" and he guided them through everything in the drawing.

As he was explaining, another man came out of the long hallway, carrying something draped over one arm. He nodded at Kitten and the other dolls who looked up, then approached the table to their right and unfurled the white cloth in his arms over it. He tugged it straight, then went up behind Junghwan and hugged him from the back. Junghwan patted his arms, eyes still studying the map closely. "This is really cool! I wish we could copy it somehow, so that we could--" the third man raised one of the hands he was hugging with in front of Junghwan's eyes, showing what was in it--a marker, like Sun's. "Oh! But, Channie, I still need--" Chanshik turned him around and pointed at the tablecloth. Junghwan crowed in delight, and broke away to start drawing on the tablecloth straight away.

"Thanks, Channie," Dongwoo said, patting him on the shoulder. Chanshik smiled at him in response and gave the dolls a little three-fingered wave before heading back to the hallway. While Junghwan was busy copying with Sun's help, Dongwoo stood up from his chair and raked a hand through his hair, brow furrowed. "The reason we were wondering about the timing is--let me show you." He went towards the three doors on the right-hand wall, and the dolls followed--except for Cedar, who stayed with Sun. As they got closer to the three doors it became clear that they weren't as identical as they'd appeared at first glance; there were subtle differences of color and pattern, different markings on the door-sills...and the left-hand door was locked shut with a heavy padlock. Dongwoo pulled a little leather packet from his pocket that unfolded to reveal an array of keys, one of which he fitted in the padlock to open it. It unfastened with a clunk, and he unwound the chain with more effort than the apparent weight would suggest. When he was finished, he took another key and unlocked the door itself. It eased open a crack, with a sound like a human sigh, and Laughter made an unconcious tight sound in his throat and shifted closer to Brother. "Yes," Dongwoo said heavily.

"What's wrong?" Brother asked, to both Dongwoo and Laughter. The latter's mouth twisted unhappily.

"It feels wretched," he said. "Stale and...angry."

"That's a good way of putting it," Dongwoo said. He shut the door, re-locking it and the padlock, and sidestepped to the second door. This one opened without any key, revealing a solid wall behind. He closed it, turned another little golden key in the lock, and opened it again; this time a dark, dripping environment was revealed.

"Oh!" Starlight said, patting Kitten's arm as if to ask if he saw: obviously he did, and so felt no need to respond beyond hitting him lightly back.

"They're supposed to be for returning guests," Dongwoo told them, pointing at the chained-up door. "That one...stopped working. Maybe a couple months ago? I think it connected somewhere and couldn't disconnect, and I've been afraid to mess with it. That's why it is particularly interesting that there are new doors in the D.Store guys' place." He carefully closed the door, shrugging at them with an awkward smile.

"Do you need...help with it?" Laughter asked reluctantly. Dongwoo's smile became more gentle in response, and he shook his head.

"I don't think so. It's staying put--not doing anything bad, besides tying up one of the doors. Apart from keeping an eye on it, I don't know that there's anything we can do, or even should do."

"Do you think the door we came through is safe to go back through?" Brother asked the important question, patting Laughter on the back in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring but mostly rattled his bones a little and left him giggling.

"I don't see why not!" Junghwan's brash voice cut in, as the remaining three people joined them, the new map-tablecloth bundled in Junghwan's arms. "That should be completely separate, right, hyung?" Dongwoo nodded. "See? Nothing to worry about! And, here--" he shoved the bundle under one arm and dug in his pocket, coming up with a similar key-case, although his had fewer keys in it: he detached one, small and gold, and held it out to Sun. "If you ever need to come straight back, just find a door with a lock and use this in it, okay? Shortcut!"

"Perfect!" Sun said, taking the key and admiring it for a second before reverently tucking it away. He beamed at Junghwan, the smile that went across his entire face. "I definitely want to come back. This place is strange, and I don't know what anything is _for_ , and your brothers are a little intimidating--so is the broken door, isn't it?--but I like it! I like learning new things--" ("So do I!" Junghwan interrupted.) "Oh, good! When we come back, you can explain what everything is for! I like it. I like you."

"I like you too!" Junghwan now tucked the bundle between his knees, freeing both hands, and patted him on his shoulders with enthusiasm. "You definitely have to come back, and I'll show you. It's mostly all for entertainment, different kinds. Do you know how to sing?" Sun shook his head in response, and he pointed at him with a serious face. "I'll teach you! Promise."

Dongwoo, meanwhile, pulled a matching key and handed it to Starlight. "Here...just in case."

Starlight smiled at him, and looked like he was considering going in for a hug, so Kitten occupied one of his arms. "Thank you," he said. "I would like to be a returning guest."

 


	2. Chapter 2

MVs referenced: Oh My Girl's Closer, f(x)'s 4 Walls.

* * *

 

  
When they came out of the door in the tree, the girl in the mirror was there to see them arrive, her lantern held high and casting warped light across her face. Kitten and Sun tried to explain their plan to her, shaping their words clearly and using gestures, as the others went to the sleeping girls to see if anything had changed. Nothing had. Laughter squatted down by one of them, gently tapping at her shoulder. "Should we bring something for the witches to look at, to help them know what is going on?"

"Like what?" Brother rolled one over and carefully peeled back her eyelid to look. "Blood, maybe?"

"I would think it would usually be blood," Cedar said glumly.

"So, what, would we just..." As Laughter was speaking, Brother presented him with a decorative pin from one of the girls' dresses. Laughter accepted it and drew back the girl's sleeve to prick her arm, carefully avoiding anything vital. The needle went in easily, but as he drew it out no droplets of blood welled up: the tiny mark showed faintly red, but no more.

"Maybe a different spot?" Brother suggested. Laughter obliged with a few more strategic pricks, on each arm, then very carefully on the soft cheek: none produced anything, even a reaction from the sleeping girl, and Starlight eventually stopped him by drawing his hand away.

"No more, what if they all start-- _psssh_!--when she wakes up?" The image was a little macabre but also a little funny, and Brother snorted as Laughter broke into giggles with an apologetic pat of the long hair. That seemed to remind Starlight of something, and he grabbed both of them, bouncing on his toes a little. "Ah! Do you remember, when the white doll was looking all loose and floppy, and she repaired it?" All the dolls in earshot shuddered involuntarily, remembering very well the long, long day where she'd detached the doll's limbs one by one, re-stuffed them, and sewed it back together.

"Do I have to?" Cedar grumbled, and Starlight switched to holding his hands, swinging them a little between their bodies.

"No, it's just... _how_ she filled it, remember?"

"She tore our hair," Brother said thoughtfully. "I remember the little dark strands poking out the next time its skin ripped. You think hair...?"

"It would be hard to carry blood, anyway. Here, let's try--" The long table nearby was scattered with desiccated and rotten-looking scraps of food, but Starlight ignored them all to take up a white cloth napkin and a small sharp knife. He handled the knife gingerly, but brought them to the others. Cedar claimed the knife from him, and crouched beside the first girl. He gently separated out a strand of hair, and Brother stepped in to hold it taut so that he could cut it more easily. The strand parted without issue, and he gave it to Starlight, who laid it along one end of the cloth and rolled it a little to contain it. They went down the line in the same way, a strand from each, until Starlight's cloth was all rolled up with the locks contained safely inside: somewhere in the middle of the process Sun and Kitten had joined them to watch soberly. Starlight held the roll of cloth as carefully as Sun was holding his map, and nodded at the others. "Come on, then. We know the way."

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/40915369095/in/album-72157690281771110/)

They did: and it made their progress quick enough that Sun's namesake was still bleeding orange light across the sky when they came to the witches' house. This time, the door didn't open as they came up to it. Starlight, exchanging glances with the others, led them to the door and opened it carefully. "Hello?" he called into it. "Amber? Luna? Another sister?"

"Just a minute!" The voice came from upstairs, and with loud footsteps Amber came down the steps. She smiled at them as she saw them. "Ah, hello! Can I help you?"

"We came back!" Sun replied brightly. "We learned a lot! And we have some questions too--do you mind? And do you have any more tea? I love tea!"

"...yes," Amber said, her smile fading into a small frown. "I'm sorry...we've met, right? I know that I know you all, but I can't remember how. You came here before, you said? And had tea?"

"Yes," Starlight said, eyes wide with sympathetic confusion. "Can you not remember things? You're a real person, right?"

"I like to think so," she said wryly, and smiled at them again, reassuringly. "It's this place: everything resets, which can be a blessing, but can also mean that there isn't a lot of...continuity."

"Would the cat remember?" Kitten asked, and she blinked up at him.

"That's a good question: she might. I'll go ask her; if you all want to have a seat in the kitchen, I'll be right back."

They did as she said, though not without moving slowly enough to watch her leave: she went to the back door and out, saying something as she went that was answered by another voice. Kitten looked a little torn, but they all went to the kitchen together. This time there was a bowl in the center of the table filled with fruit, red-and-green apples that filled the entire room with a fresh scent. "Oh, that's good luck," Laughter said; "I have been deathly curious about how they taste since Cedar got the only one that was edible." Cedar looked guilty and sentimental, and even if he couldn't have seen it, really, Laughter rolled his eyes and punched him in the shoulder.

Amber joined them in just a few minutes--long enough for them to be mostly through with their apples. The cat was on her shoulders, and kittens played around her feet fearlessly. Kitten's eyes lit up and he abandoned the scraps of his apple on the table, sliding out of his chair to sit on the ground and reintroduce himself to the kittens. "Lady Jane does remember you some, though not in detail of course--hey, you know not to eat the cores, right?" The dolls, all either finished or nearly so with their fruit, looked at her in confusion.

"It's good, though?" Brother ventured.

"It's...ah...well, you know yourselves better than I do, I guess--especially at the moment. Just, the cores aren't the most edible parts so don't feel obliged to eat them if you don't want to." The cat jumped from her shoulders to the table, sat there for a moment taking them all in, then leaped to the floor to join her kittens and their Kitten. "Since you have been vetted by the Lady I guess the next thing to do is just make tea. You said you had questions? Why not start from the beginning, since we met the last time."

They explained it to her as she made the tea--mostly Sun and Starlight, though with contributions from the others as well. It took longer to tell the tale than to make the tea--especially with Sun's many diversions--but they managed to roughly tell everything by the time the tea was all drank from their cups. Amber listened intensely the whole time. When they were finished, she leaned back in her seat and let out a huge exhale that puffed out her cheeks.

"Well I hardly know where to start with your questions. You said you took, ah, samples?" In reply, Starlight set the napkin on to the table and carefully unrolled it to reveal the strands of hair. Amber very gently touched them, straightening a few frazzled ends. She sighed again, more softly. "I don't know, you guys. It was a good idea--magically speaking, the next best thing to blood--but sympathetic magic that affects living things is...shall we say, ethically dubious?"

"That means bad, right?" Sun confirmed, and she nodded.

"You won't even do it to help them?" Cedar asked.

"I mean, there's a lot you could discuss there, whether it's worth it to save a life or if it's a road no one should start down, that flavor of magic--but the point is moot, since I never learned how." The looked a little glum, and she straightened and clapped her hands, her expression becoming more cheerful again. "Don't give up yet: my sister Vic is just outside and she may have another idea for the sleeping curse: and _I_ have some ideas about the mirror trap. Just hang on a second, let me check on something--feel free to have another apple, anyone who wants it." Cedar took her up on the offer, and Starlight slid down onto the ground to join Kitten and his namesakes, while the other three followed her. She went to a door on the outside wall of the kitchen and opened it: rather than opening to the outdoors, it opened to a closet with shelves and racks and barrels of food. Sun and Brother made interested noises and cautiously stuck their heads into the closet, while Laughter lightly touched the door.

"A magic closet!" Sun crowed. "Of food! It's amazing! How does it do it? Is it just going into some other person's food closet? Won't they be upset if you take their food? It smells so interesting!"

"No, no pantry-theft happening; it's all magic. Little pocket." She rolled her eyes. "Of course, I didn't _want_ the pantry just now...I should know better than to use the door when I'm hungry." She gestured them to move back and gently shut the door, then stood in front of it for a minute with her eyes closed, frowning. After a moment, still frowning, she opened the door again, and this time the room behind it was bigger, packed with bookshelves and with a cluttered table in the center. "About time," she said, and entered the room. The other three followed her, looking at the whole thing curiously: Brother dedicated a moment to ducking his head in and out of it, looking at the solid wall beside it, knocking the wall and door both gently, craning his neck to peer out the window and see clearly that the room wasn't on the other side of the wall.

"What is it you're looking for?" Laughter asked. He had never been in a place so drenched in magic that nonetheless felt so safe, and his strange eyes were wide as he tried to take every detail in.

"Research," she said simply. She pulled three or four books off the shelves, bringing them to the table where a great big book was laying open flat. She first looked through the big hand-written book, and made an ah-hah sound. "Here we go, we did mention you guys' visit. Just a little bit, but I guess it's good to know all the same."

"This room doesn't reset?" Brother asked curiously.

"Nah, it's another place entirely. We reset around it, but it is separate enough that the whole mess doesn't affect it."

"Couldn't you just stay in here, then, to remember things?"

"We've all done it once or twice," Amber admitted. "Stayed here for a while, whether on purpose or falling asleep or whatever. It's not worth it: it puts us out of sync with the rest of our home, and this isn't enough space to live in besides." At her words Brother nodded, and started pulling one book on each shelf an inch out, so that small ridges protruded irregularly from each case. Amber gave him an unimpressed look, but let him have his fun. (Besides, after just a few moments Laughter snapped and went behind him straightening everything.) "We've done a lot of research, as much as we can, on how to break this stupid loop that we have going on. We haven't managed it yet, but it might give us a clue on how to help your mirror friend. The sleeping...that's a different issue. But like I said, Vic might know more."

"Should we go get her?" Sun offered, and Amber waved a distracted hand, nose in one of the books.

"Nah, she'll come in soon. One of the kittens is out with her, and she wouldn't want Lady Jane to be worrying."

"Why would she worry?" Brother asked.

"Well, she probably can't _help_ but worry. She's the kitten's mom."

"What's a mom?" Sun asked. "It sounds important! It's important, right? What does it mean?"

Amber closed the book, and her fingers slowly formed a tent in front of her mouth as she looked at him. "...I don't know if I have it in me to explain the birds and the bees to you all."

"We know birds," Sun scoffed. "They're beautiful! And the sounds they make are fun! We haven't seen bees yes, I don't think. Have we?"

"I think it's a sort of--" Brother glanced in Cedar's direction and lowered his voice: "--insect, right?"

"...yep." Amber replied, opening another book and glancing over a book-marked page. One of the kittens, perhaps knowing it was being talked about, climbed up her pant leg, and she lifted it to her shoulder where it sat and purred a small rusty purr. "Let's try it this way, boys. Nothing that's alive appears out of nowhere, so where did you come from? If you don't know what a mom is, how did you come to be?"

"I don't know," Brother admitted. "We don't remember."

"Starlight probably does," Laughter said solemnly. "He remembers a lot."

"How do you _normally_ make dolls?" Sun asked her.

"You sew them out of cloth...usually..." she said, and rubbed at the back of her neck like it was paining her. "Well, your reference point is gonna be different if you're made from magic instead of born. Not sure the miracle of childbirth is relevant in your cases. Let's just say...Lady Jane is the kitten's mom. When they were new they were just tiny little beans, almost blind, and couldn't do anything: she did everything for them that they couldn't do themselves, feeding them, carrying them around. She protects them, if something tried to hurt them, or even if they were doing something dangerous to themselves. Now that they're older and can eat and move on their own most of her mom-duties involve teaching them: how to hunt, how to sneak, how to climb, how to play...how to be a cat, basically." She made a rueful face when she stopped. "Which, again, probably doesn't make things any clearer for you, since you don't have a mom...."

"It makes perfect sense!" Sun cried, as the other two nodded. "Starlight is our mom."

Amber closed the book she held, and put it with the others in a neat stack on the table. "Not sure how that works, but hey--I'm glad to hear it." She left the study, with the three of them trailing behind, and closed the door. She opened it to the pantry again and gestured inside. "Here, help us out: pick something that looks good and we'll fix it from dinner. If you think apple cores are good you will probably the most appreciative audience we've ever had." They set in with varying levels of enthusiasm, and she joined the others back at the table at about the same time Victoria was coming in from the back door.

"What's all this?" Victoria asked, her big eyes wide.

"We are Starlight, and Kitten, Cedar and Sun, Laughter and Brother, and we've come to see if you can help us."

"Oh!" She stood and blinked up at them for a moment, for they were very tall and their faces were rather serious; but two of them were leaning into each other with arms linked while the third was possessively cuddling three kittens at once, so she made the decision not to worry about them. "Well, we can try, certainly."

Amber explained the dilemma as it had been explained to her, showing the unrolled map and collection of samples on the table, and Vic nodded and made interested sounds during the whole story. "I don't know anything about the sleeping curse situation, do you...?"

She made a face in response. "No, I'm afraid we are in the same boat. I never learned anything in that vein, as you say. Perhaps if they were here in front of us..." she shrugged. "I'm sorry."

"If you can't do it, you can't," Starlight said. "I wish there were a way for you to go out. Are you really trapped here? Who did this to you?"

"I don't know that anyone did, as such," Amber said. "I think we just...tripped across something old, some curse or bit of old magic or half-fulfilled prophecy, and it came out like this. This whole bit of woods used to be in an entirely different place, you know."

"I miss going to the coffee shop," Vic said wistfully.

"--there is that. But actually, I was thinking--our problem and your mirror-girl's problem may have a very similar solution." The dolls leaned in, fascinated. "Like I said, sympathetic magic used on living things is generally bad news; but the reason it gets used at all is because it can be very very effective...and there are some sympathetic elements to some magical rituals that I _do_ know how to use."

"Ah!" Vic said brightly. "The compass points!"

"Yeah, exactly!" The dolls obviously were lost, so Amber explained to them: "At its heart, sympathetic magic just means using the similarities between two things to have one work an effect on another."

"We know that very well," Starlight assured her. "When she didn't want to touch us, she would do things through the little white doll."

Amber and Victoria were both silent for a moment: Victoria, face disturbed, deposited her kitten on Starlight's shoulder. Amber did the same with hers, setting it down with Cedar, and cleared her throat. "Well. That sucks. But, ah, in our case, it means that we might be able to effectively break the...'time loop' effect by using elements that have, uh...I don't know a non-technical way to say it."

"Bits of stuff that have lived in a similar magic," Vic put in.

Amber grinned at her. "Yeah, that. At the compass points, so four 'bits'. One can come from the house, of course: one could also come from that mirror trap. But that still leaves us needing two elements." Victoria raised a 'wait-a-second' finger, and went over to the counter. She unscrewed a small knob from one of the drawers and brought it over, tying it to a bit of string from her pocket as she did, the other three dolls following her. "Oh, I see where you're going with this," Amber said approvingly, and pulled a packet from another drawer. In the packet were a selection of needles: Cedar especially didn't like that, and Sun leaned against him some more, watching together as Amber pricked her fingertip with a needle and let the resultant droplet of blood fall on the carved wooden drawer-pull that Victoria held out to her. She gestured the dolls to move back from the table, and the two women together held the string, letting the wooden trinket dangle over Sun's map. They stood in silence for a moment, concentrating intensely: Lady Jane gave a short authoritative _mrow_ , and the knob began to swing in small lazy circles. They let it wander around the map, as it spun either more or less: when it drew near the drawing of the edifice the circles it spun in became very small and tight, until they held it just past and the spinning stopped, the drawer-pull hanging straight and stiff over a blank spot on the paper.

"Something there?" Brother said, fascinated. He had been leaning closer and closer, until Kitten set the kittens down to loop an arm around his chest and restrain him. "Past her edifice?"

"Seems so," Amber said, looking very satisfied. "I like the flames on that thing, by the way. Very cheerful."

"Thank you!" Sun said. "I drew them!"

"I wish I could draw," Victoria told him, and wound the string around the drawer-pull before tucking it into a pocket on her skirt. She patted him on his shoulder in passing as she went to the kitchen counter, rolling up her sleeves as she went.

"Well, you'll spend the night, of course," Amber said. Victoria called back to her from across the kitchen:

"Is there a particular reason why we're having salt codfish, potato gnocchi, five kinds of squash, dried persimmons, cinnamon sticks, and cider for dinner?"

Amber snorted with laughter, and giggled into her fist for a moment. "...guests' prerogative!" she said finally. "We get to be creative!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _let me know what you think, friends! as per usual, I don't know what I'm doing, so if you could drop a line mentioning what you liked I would certainly appreciate it! ^^_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MVs referenced: Oh My Girl's Windy Day, IU's Lost Child 

  
In the morning, they shared breakfast and then the witches sent the dolls off, pressing a backpack on Sun that he could use to hold his map, and Starlight's roll of hair strands, and a canteen full of water. While Amber was reviewing with Laughter and Starlight the safest ways west of their bit of woods, the cat casually, as if by coincidence, wandered right up to Kitten's feet and sat there, lightly flexing her claws into the ground. Kitten crouched down to offer his fingers, and she presented her small fine head to be scratched. After receiving her scratches, she gave his knuckles a few dainty licks and turned to slowly go back into the house. On the way there she met a kitten going the other way, and touched noses with it, thoroughly cleaning its head with her tongue before sending it on. It ran right up to Kitten, making small busy noises, and scrambled its way up him all the way to his shoulders. He scritched it as well, until the others were ready to go: then he gently set it down and turned to leave.

Whereupon it meowed as imperiously as its small lungs would allow, and climbed him again. "We're leaving," he said to it kindly, enduring the small needle-pricks of its claws and closing his eyes when it regained his shoulder and rubbed its forehead against his cheek. "You need to stay with your family," he said. Lady Jane meowed, once, then went on into the house, although her tail was not held as such a proud banner as it was before.

"Lady Jane says she is coming with you," Vic said, astonished.

"With us?" Cedar said. "Whatever for?"

The kitten purred, all contentment, and settled into its perch on Kitten's wide shoulder. It was mostly black, with white tailtip, white front paws, and a white splotch on its small chest. "Apparently it's time for her to grow up," Amber said. She reached up her fingertips to the kitten, which sniffed at them gingerly and very lightly bit them. "It's been a while," she said ruefully. "I guess I'd want to grow up too."

Kitten swallowed several times, roughly. His eyes welled up with tears, and it took him a few tries to say: "Thank you."

"Don't thank us," Vic scolded him, also presenting her fingers to the kitten to be nipped at. "It's Lady Jane and the kitten that decide such things. Take care of her: that will be thanks enough." Kitten nodded urgently, and she patted his cheek like he was one of the babies and smiled at him. Both witches (with waves and calls to be careful) went into the house, leaving six dolls and one kitten outside. Kitten--their own tall Kitten--looked overwhelmed.

"It's very small, isn't it?" Starlight said as he touched his arm reasurringly, and his eyes were a little bit wet as well. "We can keep watch on it together. She won't be hurt, Kitten, I swear." The kitten reached out her tiny paw and very deliberately scratched her claws down the back of Starlight's hand. Startled, he pulled his hand back and pouted at her, and she ignored him apart from licking her little claws clean.

"I think she's saying she can take care of herself," Brother said.

Kitten touched the white splotch on her chest gently, and smiled. "I think she should be named Heart."

"A strong heart," said Starlight, still looking sulky: but they knew him well enough to know that he didn't mean it, really.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Of course when they were in the windy wood they must find the girl in red, to give her the news of her sisters; but that was easier thought than done, since obviously she could be anywhere, and wouldn't necessarily search them out either. Sun's solution--characteristically--was very noisy indeed, but as no one else had better ideas (except for Laughter to keep his eyes open) they didn't stop him from cupping his hands around his mouth every few steps and shouting. "Hello?? Girl! (I wish we knew her name, Cedar, isn't this rude?) Girl in red! (I don't like red, it reminds me of blood) Girl with sisters!" After a while, his voice was drowned out by the howling of the winds that called the woods home, and the dolls couldn't do anything but try to hold each other and their belongings in place until it died down. Laughter was laughing helplessly, and so was Cedar to see his hair reaching upwards and mirroring the down-twisted branches of the trees, when Kitten got their attention by swatting at their shoulders with his big hands.

"Hello!" Sun called out; for of course it was the girl, partially hidden behind trees but looking unruffled by the wind, approaching them by way of random tree-to-tree movements. "We have news! What is your name? That isn't the news, I just think names are important, don't you?"

"I'm Jiho," the girl called back, "Though I don't know if it's important." She eased into view, and looked them all over.

Kitten mustered his bravery and said, "We found your sisters." Her attention focused fully on him. He had hoped such intense stares had been left behind in the witch's dungeon, and his courage faded as he tucked himself behind Starlight. "They are cursed," he finished, but so softly that she had to lean in to hear him, which was exactly _not_ what he would have wanted.

"My sisters are cursed?" She asked. He nodded in reply, and her face became cold and hard. "Who has cursed them?" Her voice was tight, her fists clenched, and she rose up on her toes like she would run off the moment she knew the target her anger could be aimed at. She was beautiful in her fury and love, and Cedar cleared his throat and stepped forward, suddenly finding himself in front of someone he could understand very well.

"It looked like maybe they had walked into something rather than that something was aimed at them personally."

"Tell me," Jiho insisted: and they did, in fits and starts before her glare had them surrenduring all the telling to one person (Cedar, as it happened). After, she dropped into a crouch, rubbing harshly at the top of her head with her fists, before surging back to her feet with a close-mouthed scream. "Do _not_ move," she told them, and broke out running into the woods: Laughter and Cedar almost stumbled with the instinct to run too, but they all waited as they had been told.

"I feel bad," Sun said after a moment.

"About her sisters?" Cedar asked.

"No...well, yes. I feel bad because...because I didn't feel bad? Before? It wasn't like I was happy that they were cursed but I didn't feel bad. I don't know them. But she feels bad, so now I feel bad. Is that strange? Or was I strange before because I didn't feel bad?"

"You can't feel bad about _everything_ ," Brother said practically. He was worrying at his knuckles with his teeth. "If there's nothing to be done...it's like back then. We didn't think about leaving because there was no point."

" _I_ thought about it," Starlight said under his breath.

"I would feel miserable if something happened to one of you, because I love you. But I don't love her." Sun made a face. "Is it strange? Do you think?"

"I don't think it's strange at all," Kitten said, firmly enough that they all looked at him in surprise. "I think it's good to want to help people. To want them to not be in pain. Even if you don't love them."

"Was I bad for not feeling bad before?" Sun asked. His eyes were very wide, his expression serious; Kitten couldn't stand it, and dragged him over so he could rest his head on his shoulder and not look in his face any more.

"I think it's natural to be...." Laughter trailed off, his brows pinched as he tried to dig out the right word. "To be...selfish? Yes, selfish. To do things because you want to do them. To think of yourself first."

"You're not bad, Sun," Starlight said, with a confident authority that no one would be able to contradict. "We are all learning, aren't we? I think Kitten is right, that it's good to want others to not be in pain; and I think that Laughter is right, that it is okay to be selfish sometimes too. And when you do a thing out of love, even if it's difficult, isn't it also satisfying to the point that it _feels_ like selfishness? The world out here is better than it was there, but it is more complicated too. Of course we won't understand everything at once."

"I think we can just act opposite to how _she_ would have acted--" Brother said suddenly, "--and it will always be the right thing to do. Isn't that simpler?" Starlight laughed, which made Kitten nod at Brother approvingly.

It wasn't a long wait before she came running back, a knapsack in her hand like the one Victoria had given them except much more patchworked and worn. She pulled a pair of battered black boots out of the pack and dropped them on the ground, stomping one-two into them as she slung the pack on her back. "If we're going outside my woods it's better to be safe than sorry," she said, apparently in explanation, and turned expectant eyes to Starlight. "Can we go now?"

"'We'?" Starlight asked.

"Of course if you are going to find something to help my sisters we are going together," she said. Her eyes narrowed. "They are not to be left in a curse. When we get them free, I will go together with them and find the ones who set the trap you speak of: and we will leave them in pieces."

"That sounds fair," Sun said. "Do you know where we're going, then?"

"Past the edifice. I don't like to go out of my woods, but some times things wander from the plains to the outskirts: they are usually strange but harmless. That is all I know about it--well, and now I know what there is something there that can help us. Why aren't we moving?"

They had no answer to give her: and so they started moving again. For a while Heart walked beside Kitten on her tiny paws, before he grew too concerned for her and gently picked her up to set her back on his shoulder. They walked in the direction she led them, which was towards the edifice whose blackened top was just visible in blinks and flashes past the tree tops. As she explained, this cut through a corner of the forest and would bring them there in less than an hour; the woods were large but they needn't go through them all. Sun tried to start conversation with Jiho at first, but her answers were very short with all her thoughts turned forwards; Starlight picked up the cues that she dropped, and Sun was happy enough to talk to him, with the others content to just listen. When they did reach the edge of the woods it was just that; an edge, as hard and sharp as the edge of a knife. There was no thinning into underbrush, no gradual decrease. One minute they were walking thorugh towering trees: the next, they were stepping from the trees into a bare muddy plain. They all froze in the new environment, even Jiho, and looked. To their right the woods curved in a long arc around the southern approach to the edifice: it's northern face was stark and uncovered, looming wretchedly over the plain. The plain was nearly lifeless, mud and dirt with little thin patches of brown grass and the occasional clusters of twisty, bare, skeletal trees. The ground itself was a mess of dips and swells, hummocks up to as tall as the dolls randomly humping up out of the ground and hollows with their bases lost in shadow which showed occasional traces of strange, slow movement.

"Oh, I hate it." Sun said what they were all thinking, his generous mouth turned down and his eyes shadowed. "I don't like it at _all_."

"Do we need to start at the edifice?" Laughter asked, subdued. "What it that at the base of it?"

They all looked in that direction and saw that there was indeed a mysterious something near the base, a kind of hummock that had more unnatural angles than the dirt of the plain. Starlight winced a little but put on a good face. "Well, let's go look, then. It's just a shell, it can't do anything to us."

"A _burnt_ shell," Kitten muttered, with dark satisfaction. The dolls all smiled at that, not widely but fiercely, and Brother crossed his arms across his chest and nodded.

"What are we waiting for?"

 

The edifice somehow seemed not much larger as they approached it but just taller, a spindly blackened form that rose up and up in a way that made eyes hurt to look at it. In its darkness there were darker patches, windows with glass, windows with broken glass, simple holes that looked almost rotted through its stony shell. The sort of something at its base refused to resolve itself until they were right on top of it; when they were, Jiho reached out her foot and nudged into the heap. It shifted with a grating rattle, and the dolls shifted with it; for it was mostly metal, long thin blades, short stout needles, saws, every possible sort of thing that could hold an edge--some broken, some whole, some rusted quite through and some still shiny and new-looking. There were other things too--bits of withered foodstuffs, broken glass, strange pieces of machinery, shreds of cloth, long white bones.

"What sort of bones are they?" Kitten asked, and Brother saw that Starlight was trembling a little as he slipped an arm around his waist. Jiho kicked through the stuff, exposing bits here and there, and bending down to look at them.

"All sorts," she said. "One or two maybe from persons like ourselves...the rest animal, likely, large and small and inbetween." She fished out one to look at more closely: It was a blunt-pointed little skull of some kind, and Kitten made a choked sound and hid his face in his hands. Heart leaped down from her perch on his shoulders and prowled the ground around his feet, her soft ruff raised and her fangs displayed. Brother looked at the pile, trying to ignore the details and just take in the bigger picture. He stepped back, another step, and craned his head upwards.

"Ah," he said. "The window." The others looked up as well, and saw what he did: the biggest of the gaps, dark and empty, almost directly above them on the edifice's grim face.

"Thrown out the window," Jiho said, nodding. "By the one who lived here." She looked at the heap again, kicked at a tangle of straps, and ceremoniously spat on them. She then took a step closer to the nearest doll--Laughter--and patted him, 4 times, awkwardly, on his shoulder. "You burned it well."

Starlight started to say something, but it faded out in his throat. He coughed, clearing the tightness, and said: "Yes. Thank you." He stepped sideways away from Kitten, with a final squeeze around his waist, and transferred his grip to Sun. Sun accepted the hug with eager arms and Starlight tucked his face into his shoulder for a moment as Sun did the same. "Let's move on," he said, voice muffled. "We still need to find a way to free the sisters."

 

* * *

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/41200749974/in/dateposted-public/)

* * *

 

 

  
The whole plain to the north spread out indistinguishably. For lack of other options, they made Laughter close his eyes and point in a general direction, and followed that. The bare dirt began to break up into the dips and hillocks that they had seen from afar, the unwelcoming trees punctuating the scene here and there, blind corners everywhere. As the hollows grew deeper so did the shadows in them...until at one point something rose up from the shadows, slowly, that they all stood stock-still to observe warily. It crawled out into the thin light--even the sun seemed dim and yellowish here--and several of them hissed in surprise, for it was something not unlike a person. Its body was rough, unfinished-looking, nearly featureless. Hard, colorless hair was pasted back against its skull, and its expressionless face turned towards them. " _What_ is _that_ ," Sun said shrilly, as though he wanted stronger words to ask the question with.

"One of the creatures that come from here," Jiho said. She went and stood right up next to it demonstratively; it neither shrank back nor reached toward her, although its blank face did turn up, looking at her--not quite high enough to meet her eyes. "See?" She said. "Strange. But harmless." She inched backwards and kicked at the dirt, sending a little plume towards the creature; its gaze slowly turned back down to look at the disturbed earth. It then began to ease back into the hollow, not hurrying, until it was once again almost invisible among the earth and the shadows.

"Heart doesn't like them," Kitten said. Indeed, at his heels Heart was fluffed up to twice her size, and when he reached down to try and sooth her she danced away from his hands and continued to watch the hollow intensely.

"I don't like them either," Starlight admitted, "But there's no way to go but forwards, is there? Unless we're giving up, that is." They all resumed their walk; but slowly, keeping their eyes more carefully on the shadows that could hold movement. There didn't seem to be too many of the creatures, and they didn't seem to cluster together. They barely even appeared to register each others' presence, and the dolls grew increasingly tense with every sight of them.

"Do you think..." Brother trailed off, frowning. He had had a thought, and he didn't like where it was going. "Do you think they...." Some of the creatures were more finished-looking than others; some even wore clothing, of a sort, dirt-colored rags hard to distinguish from the mud itself.

"Yes," Laughter said, his deep voice heavy. He was holding hands with Cedar: and he had been the one to reach out. "Like the bits and pieces dumped back there."

"Do you mean..." Cedar scowled ferociously. "From _her_?"

"We came from _somewhere_ ," Starlight said. His eyes were hooded and there wasn't even a ghost of a smile. "I always did wonder if I was different because she made me wrong. Because I was...first."

"I don't...." Sun was working it out more slowly, probably because most parts of him didn't want to know. Brother never liked seeing him so serious.

"Defective dolls," Kitten said, and his words sank into them like their feet sank into the soft ground. "Thrown out before they were finished."

They were very silent. Jiho, watching them, didn't say anything; but she started walking again and, automatically, they followed. Sun went to the front to walk beside her and ask a flurry of low-voiced questions that she answered readily enough, though all her answers were short. Kitten and Starlight ended up at the rear of the group, walking closely together and looking down often to make sure Heart wasn't getting too tired. Brother was in the middle, just behind the two holding hands, and he kept his head up, trying to spot anything dangerous that his small extra span of height might let him see before the others. It was very difficult to travel in anything like a straight line, so several times they paused so that Laughter could concentrate and point them in whatever direction felt right. In one of these pauses they were in a larger flat space than usual, with two of the disturbing creatures in the shadows of the edges. One of them came right up to Starlight's feet where he stood at the back. It looked him over slowly, without any real interest or life, and as seemed to be their nature didn't look higher than his chest. With a small twisty smile Starlight bent at the knees a little and ducked his head to meet its gaze.

 

What happened next happened so swiftly that later Brother wasn't sure what he'd seen. The thing's soulless eyes met with Starlight's and it didn't look away. For a moment it was completely still; then, its blank, strangely unfinished features twisted in a rictus snarl of pure hate and it surged upwards, slamming its skull into Starlight's head with a muffled _crack_. Starlight wavered and started to fall, his eyes rolling back in his head, and the creature tried to sink its blunt teeth into his arm even as it tore at him with its hands. "Starlight!" Brother shouted, while beside him Kitten made a strangled sound and lunged forward. The others realized something was occurring, but too late to do something as Brother and Kitten reached Starlight together: Kitten grabbed the thing around the throat with one hand, yanking back on its stiff hair with the other as he tried to pull its jaws off of where they were grinding down on Starlight's shoulder. Brother wrapped both arms around Starlight's middle and pulled, and their combined efforts separated Starlight from his attacker. Brother dragged him backwards, almost whimpering at the limp dead weight of him, as Kitten used his grip on its hair to throw the creature to the ground. There were other hands then as the other dolls reached Brother and Starlight, and he curled around their injured member as the others crowded around them in a protective shell. Through their legs Brother could see Kitten tearing into the thing like he had claws instead of flat-nailed hands, beating it around the head and body with wild, uncoordinated movements and ignoring its own attempts to fight back.

"Kitten!" Laughter snapped, and was ignored. Jiho, who was nearby but not a part of the protective circle of bodies, was watching him intently. Another of the creatures came closer--with the more slow, aimless movements that they had begun to become used to--and when it got into reach she coolly planted her boot in its face and shoved it back into the hole it came from.

"Starlight? Starlight? Starlight?" Sun's frantic calls were accompanied by his hands pushing through Brother's arms to pat and stroke at Starlight's ashen cheeks. "Starlight? Are you okay? Smallest? Starlight?"

"Of _course_ he's not," Brother snapped. He regretted it immediately, but Sun didn't take it personally--if he even heard it. The creature that Jiho had pushed back didn't try and come back again, and the one under Kitten had stopped moving. He didn't stop battering it, though, until Jiho came over and nudged it with a toe.

Kitten slowly stopped, heaving rough gasps that were the loudest sound to be heard. He staggered to his feet and stepped away from the creature, which was not quite the shape it had been before it went for Starlight. Jiho patted his shoulder--he didn't even flinch--and shoved the body into the hollow with business-like movements. As she did so Cedar peeled away from the knot of dolls and went to Kitten, the anger pushed out of his face by concern. Brother didn't see what he did then because all of his attention was focused on Starlight. "Are you awake?" He whispered into his ear, and of course got no response. "Can't you wake up?" Sun gently helped him to lay Starlight out on the ground and check him over. It didn't look as bad as it would have after even the lightest of a session with _her_ ; but it was bad enough. His upper arm where the teeth had clenched down was already swelling with a nasty deep bruise, and probably its nails had been sharper than they looked because there were rents in the shirt with cuts beneath. The worst of it of course was the blow to the head: there was a slow trickle of blood running down his hairline, and when they gently pushed his fringe back his forehead showed broken skin and a growing lump...and he wasn't waking up. Sun carefully lifted one of his lids and they both hissed to see the eye rolled back beneath it.

"We should find somewhere safe so we can rest with him," Laughter said in his deepest and most worried voice, his hands wound into his hair and pulling tight. "We don't share energy as easily as we did but maybe all together...."

"Where?" Brother asked. Laughter merely grimaced in response. Jiho, done with the body, was scrambling to the top of the tallest hillock and trying to get a view of everything around them, but there wasn't a reaction like she had discovered something. Brother couldn't stand up because he was holding Starlight, but he looked at Laughter and angled his head to 'point' in her direction. "Can you maybe...? Just think about 'place to rest' rather than 'thing we're looking for'."

"I'm not sure how that would work," Laughter said, "But of course I'll try."

He did, closing his eyes and turning a slow circle, as Sun and Brother held Starlight securely. Cedar unsuccessfully tried to make Kitten let him look at his hands while Heart scaled his side to perch on his shoulder and give brisk scolding licks to his neck and ear. Laughter found something after but a moment: or at least he pointed in a direction that wasn't either the one they'd come from or the one they'd been going to, even as he complained about straining his brain with all the looking. Brother carried Starlight, naturally. He was strangely light; he might be the smallest but his body held so much life and determined energy that Brother had never really thought of him as being...fragile. He'd seen him broken, of course, as they all had been created to be, but this was different somehow. It was Sun who was able to voice a reason why.

"I _hate_ this," he whined, though quietly. "I hate it. Aren't we supposed to be away from this? I thought things would be better once we got away. This isn't better. This is awful. He'll be fine, won't he? Don't you think? Or maybe he won't. We've only been unconscious when we're sleeping since we got away. What if he never wakes up? What if--"

"Shut up," Brother said firmly, though he tried to not make it unkind. Sun swallowed, hard: he was walking with one hand wrapped around Starlight's dangling ankle and he added his other hand as well. "There's no point in what-if."

"Starlight usually is the one who thinks about the what-ifs," Cedar said. He was holding Kitten's elbow with one hand and Laughter's hand with his other, and his eyes looked up, down, and everywhere. "We need him."

"Of _course_ we need him," Sun said.

 

They found what Laughter had sensed by walking into it: two low columns of stone flanking steps that descended into the earth. "Are you sure this is safe?" Jiho said doubtfully.

"No," said Laughter curtly, "But neither is out here." He went for the stairs, dragging Cedar and Kitten behind him, and Cedar protested but did't try and stop him. There were recesses lining the stair walls that held pale lights in them, and by that light they descended: not too deep, but rather far as the shallow steps swept in a gentle spiral. Brother carried Starlight more carefully than ever, careful not to knock his head or feet against the walls, and Sun helped steady him so that he couldn't trip. The stairs led to a round antechamber that was dry and dim, with a low ceiling. It felt secure--or secure enough, at least--and since Laughter didn't seem to feel otherwise they all stopped in the center and gathered around Brother as he sat down with Starlight still held protectively close. Jiho did a circuit of the chamber, paying careful attention to the doorway that led deeper into whatever this place was. When she had inspected it all she stood a little way distant and observed the dolls as they arranged themselves, expression remote.

"Will you be a long time?" She asked them. Brother and Sun shrugged in response and she nodded, forehead creased. "I think I will go back up and keep looking, then. I can circle around this place and look at all the plain around for anything that will help my sisters."

There was no reason to stop her, so they didn't. Starlight was laid out on the floor with great care: the bag from the witches had rolls of cloth bandages inside, some insight or caution from Amber or her sisters, and Brother held Starlight's head steady while Sun wrapped the cloth around it. Cedar tried to do the same to Kitten's hands, which were tucked into his armpits so that they couldn't be seen. Kitten ignored him, looking all around the room and then staring fixedly at Starlight. "Kitten," Cedar said, and was ignored: he went to Laughter and whispered in his ear, which Kitten ignored: then the two of them boxed in Kitten, one on either side, and pulled him down to the ground only a little more gently than he'd done to the creature on the plain. He fought them, hard, and they together sat on him and held his arms down, leaving only his long legs to futilely try and shove them off. He was silent and expressionless, and Brother and Sun watched with concern.

"Do you need help?" Brother called out. Cedar didn't respond, but Laughter looked at them and gave a rather pained wince.

  
"I got it, Brother," Sun said reassuringly. "You keep holding our Starlight." He went to assist the others, flopping across Kitten's legs to pin them down and chattering away the whole time, bright, meaningless words meant to soothe and distract. With the assistance Cedar was able to minister to Kitten's poor hands: they were bruised and bloody, skin torn from the knuckles until white bone showed here and there, and several nails had been ripped off entirely. He poured water from the canteen over them, carefully, rinsing off all the muck from the creature. Kitten had mostly stopped fighting by that point, and while his face was still expressionless there were tears trickling slowly down into his hair. Laughter took the bandages and lightly by feel used them, wrapping them round and round till Kitten's hands were featureless white and practically useless. When it was done, they shifted off of Kitten and let him sit up...which he did slowly, trying to hide his face in his bandaged hands.

"Shut up," Laughter grumbled, though Kitten still hadn't said anything, and crawled away after briefly laying his head on his shoulder. Cedar cleaned up and Sun shuffled forward on his knees to wrap Kitten in his arms.

"It's all right, Kitten," he said. "You did a good job! We all would have helped, you know, though. We can help if there's a next time, so you don't have to get hurt." He petted his hair, brushing out some bits of debris, and kissed him on the top of his head, gently, then several more times, each with an increasingly obnoxious smack until Kitten shoved him away. He shoved gently, though. Then he went and nudged Brother aside so that he could take Starlight's head in his lap, and Brother decided not to protest beside pinching him in his side. The pinch couldn't have been more painful than his torn hands but he flinched away and whined at it; Brother thought he looked a little more settled afterwards, though. Having been unseated from his previous spot, Brother shifted over and lifted Starlight's arm cautiously into his lap, the elbow bent and the hand held between both of his. Sun took his other arm--the bitten one--and held it even more carefully, as the other two did the same for his legs, shifting the hems of his pants-legs up to touch his ankles in the hopes that skin-to-skin contact would still help the most. Heart stepped lightly to the center of his chest where she curled up and went right to sleep.

The chamber was silent except for their breathing.

 

"He's missing it," Sun said, so abruptly that Kitten jumped. "This is his favorite."

"The touching?" Cedar said. Sun nodded, and Cedar laughed--a rarely-heard but heartening sound. "He really does like it the most, doesn't he?"

"He needs it the most. She was so insightful in her cruelty," Laughter said. His voice was heavy and they sobered at the sound of it. "Wasn't she. We were so careful, after all, to never make it obvious--to never show how we felt. That we felt much of anything--except our hate of her. But she still knew something of it, didn't she? Knew somehow the best ways of hurting, that he would be helped beyond healing hurts if he was with us. She never put any of us with him to heal--not after that first time. Always someone else."

"Brother was with him, when he was littlest," Kitten said, and Brother let his head drop. He played with Starlight's fingers and listened. "Then he was with me, when he was nearly broken for good. With Cedar, the time with the glass, after we all were real. That's all."

"I never even got to touch him until we got out--then he kissed my cheek!" Sun said. "He didn't get to touch Laughter till then either, did he?"

"He did." Laughter was smiling, but in a way that looked sad. "You remember, the time with my feet?" The dolls nodded, all but Brother. Laughter noticed, and explained to him. "We nearly had to find out if things that are taken off entirely will come back. She left me in the center chamber all night, and I was close enough to crawl to Starlight's cell--right outside it. He reached and reached until he could touch my hand, and stayed that way until morning."

"Wasn't the little doll strung up?" Brother asked. "How was he not strangled?"

"He got right to the edge. It sounded--" Laughter changed his breathing to demonstrate: shallow, strained, careful. "He looked so happy, though. When he stretched enough to reach me."

They didn't talk more, after that. Sun was the first to lie down, curled into Starlight's side and holding his hand to his cheek to make sure he wouldn't lose the skin-to-skin touch that made it easier to help each other heal. The others followed his example; Brother intended to stay awake, to watch over the others and wait for Jiho to return, and he managed it--for a little while.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MVs referenced: Shinhwa's Venus, VIXX's Fantasy and The Closer 

  
Starlight awoke slowly. There was a deep throbbing ache in his head, counterbalanced with a buzz of strange energy that made him feel like he could run for hours. He blinked hard several times, clearing the sleep out of his eyes, and took in his surroundings. His left arm was completely immobilized by Sun curled around it; the point of his big freckled nose was tucked almost into his armpit and Starlight smiled at him, feeling very fond. His legs were similarly occupied by Laughter and Cedar, and Brother's back was pressed all along his right side, while Heart's little furry body was a warm weight on his chest. Which left Kitten. Starlight craned his neck slowly, feeling a twinge in his head as he did so, and as expected found the missing doll acting as his pillow. Kitten had his hands tucked under his cheek, and Starlight frowned to see them pretty much mummified by bandages. He worked his right arm free and angled it a little awkwardly to pat him on his chest. "Kitten?" He said softly, loathe to disturb everyone's sleep. "Are you hurt?" Kitten stirred awake begrudgingly, looking confused as he did so, and as his eyes met Starlight's they widened.

"Smallest," he murmured. He say up carefully, steadying Starlight's head as he did, and settled cross-legged with his head in his lap. "Are you okay?"

"My head hurts a bit, and I can't feel my fingers--but that's just because Sun has them. I've had worse, and often--we all have. Are _you_ alright?"

Kitten looked offended, slightly, and shrugged with one shoulder. "I took care of it. That's all." He folded over and pressed his cheek to Starlight's for a moment before straightening again. "You aren't supposed to be the only one who's hurt. You promised: we take care of you."

"It's not like I _tried_ to be hurt," Starlight complained. "I wasn't even careless: the thing seemed harmless, as they all had been. All I did was look it in the eyes."

"Why did it attack you?" Kitten murmured. "Can you guess?"

"In its eyes, when it saw me there was...." He had to think, trying to name the dark thing he'd seen there in the split second before it had knocked him flat. "There was...envy. Some part of it knew, I think, that I was a completed version of what it had been meant for. _I_ wasn't thrown away half-finished."

"You were able to...fulfill its purpose."

"For whatever that's worth." He had forgotten to keep his voice low and the others started to stir. He wrinkled his nose at Kitten anyway and finished: "You shouldn't be hurt unnecessarily either. Don't make me task Brother to mind you: you know he can."

"I can what?" Brother said muzzily.

None of them was waking up quickly, even Brother who usually was able to spring right up: clearly they had been sharing their energy with Starlight, which was why he felt as well as he did, and he loved them so much he felt full to overflowing with it. "I'm sorry for waking you," he said lightly, sitting up with Kitten's help as Sun released his arm. (Heart, disodged from her perch, made a great show of disinterest: Jiho had been dozing while sat against the wall, and Heart went nearby to wash her paws and ears) "Were you worried? I'm all right, my head just aches a bit is all."

" _Starlight_." Sun scrambled upright, and might have toppled over if Cedar hadn't reached out and steadied him. "You're awake! I'm so glad! We thought--well, at least _I_ thought you might not wake up. It was awful. Are you okay? How is your head? And your arm? We tried--" Kitten's bandaged hand over his mouth cut off the flow of words and Starlight laughed.

"I feel okay. Thank you all for taking care of me!" Cedar was patting his legs with his eyes a little wet, and Starlight squeezed his hands as he looked around the chamber. "Where are we?"

"Laughter looked for somewhere safe to rest and we came here," Cedar answered. His voice was rough and he looked up at the ceiling as though he could hide his damp eyes from them. Laughter pinched the side of his neck until he shied away.

"Couldn't this be what we're looking for?" Jiho put in. She stood up and shook herself, resettling her dress and hair, and pulled her patchworked pack back over her shoulders. "I looked around the outside, for quite a ways: there wasn't anything that could be seen, besides dirt and dead trees and creatures. Nothing made by people, and isn't that what we're looking for?"

"What do you think, Laughter?" Sun asked. He had bossily pulled Starlight from Kitten's arms and was making a show of putting his clothing to rights.

Laughter shrugged, still smiling though his eyebrows pinched together. "That passage seems to go in the right general direction, anyway. And this is clearly a place made by people: maybe they could give us directions, even if what we need isn't here."

"Or maybe they could be trouble," Cedar said. (He was trying to hold Sun's, Starlight's, and Laughter's hands all at once.)

"Starlight is still healing," Kitten said firmly, holding a hand out and beckoning coaxingly to Heart. "We should be cautious."

"You're still healing too, idiot," Brother said; Kitten glared at him and in return he stuck his tongue out a little and made a face right back.

"We can't be so cautious we don't _do_ anything," Starlight said, trying to be reasonable. "We might as well be back locked in cages, then."

"The world is dangerous," Jiho put in. "It's good to be wary." She sucked her lip between her teeth and looked--for the first time--almost hesitant. "And if something happens to us we can't help my sisters. But I am going to keep trying to help them, even if my arms and legs fall off."

"Surely it won't come to that," Cedar said.

"But of course you're right, Jiho," Starlight said, "We've come for a reason, and the reason is to help them--your sisters." He stood up, shrugging off the hands that tried to steady him, and looked at them searchingly. "It's not like I own you. I love you, that's all; it doesn't mean you have to decide that what I think should be done actually _should_ be done. Do you...does _anyone_ want to do something else? Something that would maybe be safer? We have the little gold keys, you know: all we need is a door with a lock and we could go somewhere reasonably unharmful. It would be a shortcut to your sisters, too, Jiho--you could see them." His fingers worried at one of the new tears in his shirt.

"We don't follow you because we think we have no choice," Kitten said very softly, not looking up from where he was stroking Heart's soft ears. "It's because we trust you."

"And you have good ideas," Brother said, practically. Starlight's hands were on his cheeks as was his habit when he was feeling overwhelmed, and Brother smiled at him, a shy secret smile that never showed up when he was being cheeky. "Let's go on, then." He crouched and presented his back. "Come on, I won't offer this every day, you know."

"I can walk," Starlight protested, and five scoffing voices told him what they thought of that. Hands still on his cheeks, he looked them all over like he was drinking them in. "I love you."

"We know," Sun, Cedar, Brother, and Laughter chorused: Sun brightly, Cedar quietly, Brother with a sigh, and Laughter with a giggle.

 

* * *

 

 

The chamber was round, and clean, and white-floored: columns surrounded it, and the roof was a void of nothing that made their eyes hurt to look at it. In one quarter of the room there was a great, twisted, leafless tree that had grown up and around four square columns, and cradled in the canopy of that tree was some sort of huge nest, white and artificial like a porcelain basin. Seated under that tree on the ground was a dark-haired man. "Hello?" Starlight called. There was no answer, and he prodded at Brother until he let him down from his back (at which point Brother grabbed his hand). "Hello there? Is this your place? We are looking for a place where time is strange, and the physical reality of things isn't as consistent as it should be. Is this that place?" The man still didn't answer: he was playing with something on the ground in front of him.

The dolls approached cautiously, Brother and Starlight at the head, until they were at one of the four columns that framed the nest area. The man was playing some sort of game with stones, dropping them, snatching them up in different numbers, dropping them again. After a minute he tossed up the stones, snatched them out of the air, and looked up. "Since when is physical reality is consistent as it 'should be', though?" He gave Cedar a very odd, unclear look. The dolls exchanged glances: Cedar and Sun shrugged at each other.

"My sisters are cursed," Jiho said plainly. "Some of them are cursed to sleep: one of them is trapped in a mirror. We are looking for a place that is supposed to be in this direction, that has something that can be used to break the curse on the mirror."

The man looked her over appraisingly and stood up, brushing bits of white rock-dust off his knees. He was fairly tall, with thought-lines on his forehead and smile-lines around his mouth--but his expression as he looked at them was quite neutral. "I don't know anything about mirrors, or strangenesses in time; but it's funny that you should mention sleep curses." He looked up at the strange porcelain nest above their heads, and the look was soft. "Our lady was under such a curse, until recently."

"She's not anymore?" Sun interrupted, and the man didn't look at him but he did nod.

"Oh, no. We couldn't let that stand, of course. We are not naturally talented with magic, but time is as good as talent in some situations: there is a potion-maker, you know. He doesn't live near here, but once we knew where he was it wasn't an impossible task to make a door that led to where he is."

"Where is this door?" Jiho said immediately. "We will go there first, before we continue looking for the other place, so that I can wake my sisters."

The man looked her over once more, searchingly: whatever he saw in her face must have pleased him, because he smiled at her, then nodded and sat back down on the ground. "That door, across there: down the hall. There is a door at the end, with red sills and no handle: you can go through, and back through." He pulled his stones back out of his pocket and rolled them between his fingers. He pointed to Cedar. "You'll want to watch out, kid. I don't know how he'll take you."

"What do you mean?" Sun said, stepping up to Cedar's side. The man chuckled.

"You'll see," he said, smiling at whatever joke they didn't get: and he went back to his game with the stones.

"Thank you," Starlight said, though the man didn't respond. So for lack of other options--they followed his directions.

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/41200749944/in/album-72157690281771110/)

 

Through the magic door, it was at first hard to tell that they'd gone anywhere other than another corridor of the underground building, since the walls looked very much the same: not so hard for Laughter, though, who winced and threw his arm up across his eyes like someone stepping from darkness into bright sunlight. "Laughter!" Starlight said, "Are you okay? Is something bad here?"

"N...no, not like that...." He lowered his arm slowly, blinking hard and looking around the corridor. "This place is just...saturated with magic. It's giving me a headache."

"Do you want to close your eyes?" Cedar asked. His forehead was furrowed in concern, and he took Laughter's elbow, slowly to make sure he didn't startle him. "Close them, Laughter, until you're used to it." Laughter made a face at being ordered but did as he was told, squinting his black-crossed eyes shut and letting Cedar guide him.

"We are probably in the right place then," Jiho said, and started down the hall with light steps: Sun hurried to catch up with her, and the others followed straggling behind. The hall was short, and at the end of it an empty doorframe showed a very clean-looking room beyond.

"Hello!" Sun cried as they entered the room one by one, looking around in interest at the red-draped walls. "Is the potion-maker here? We're looking for you--we need a potion!" Jiho whispered to him, and he corrected himself: "Six potions!" One of the red draperies on the wall shifted; they all watched as it took a form like it was draped over a tall, broad-shouldered person.

"Are you here as clients?" The curtain-shape said in a bell-clear female voice.

"Yes," Jiho said, speaking more loudly than usual. "To get potions."

The curtain-shape's head seemed to turn towards her, and then nod. "Please proceed. The potion-maker will be informed." It then lost its form, collapsing back into an empty red curtain, and the room was silent.

"...thank you!" Sun said.

They proceeded through to the next room, which was much bigger, with three steps leading down to a lower section that was crowded with devices whose use could not be extrapolated. They went down the steps because there was no where else to go: on the middle step, Laughter and Cedar stopped while the rest of them continued. Kitten gestured to them as Heart watched with ear-pricked interest from his shoulder, and Cedar looked back with wide eyes. "I can't move," he said, and beside him Laughter nodded quickly. The others came back to them with an unhelpful flurry of comments:

"Are you sure?"

"Did something stick to your feet?"

" _We_ could go, how come--"

"Try stepping backwards!"

"Everyone shut up," Laughter interrupted, worried but laughing. "We can't move, except our heads a little: maybe we stepped on something and triggered a trap?"

"A security measure," an eerily familiar voice said: and everyone turned to look across the room where stood...Cedar. His clothes were different, and his hair as well, but the face was identical--except for a more distant, cold expression than Cedar had ever worn before, even with _her_. The dolls looked from him back to Cedar, who was still frozen wide-eyed beside Laughter, and Kitten stepped between him and the new person with his shoulders squared.

"What for?" Laughter said, not sounding shocked: but of course he couldn't see that the man looked like one of their own, and the voice was the same but so different in tone that it didn't sound much the same at all.

"There have been previous clients who left me wary." He stepped closer, down the stairs at his side of the room, and looked them over with his arms folded. He looked the longest at Cedar.

"Why do you look like our brother?" Starlight burst out, having to go up on his tip-toes a little to have an unimpeded view over Brother's shoulder. "And why did the security measure trap Cedar and Laughter?"

"As I said," the man murmured, "Previous..." He stepped closer, still staring at Cedar, and Kitten went up on the lowest step so that he could block Cedar entirely from view; Heart lept from his shoulder to Laughter's, not bothered by the magic that held them. The man looked at him levelly also. "It detects certain kinds of magic," he finally said. "Previous clients...this explains several things, actually." He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, and Laughter and Cedar wavered as they were released from the hold. "Hmm. And yet she was clearly _capable_ of more original projects...."

"That doesn't actually explain anything," Sun complained. The man looked at him with Cedar's eyes but nothing like Cedar's expression, and Sun faltered and joined Starlight behind Brother.

"Begging your pardon, but you are here as potential clients, aren't you? My personal affairs are, frankly, none of your business."

"You are the potion-maker," Jiho said: it wasn't voiced as a question, but he inclined his head in reply. "Oh, good," she said: "I need potions to break a sleeping curse: six of my sisters are cursed to sleep." The potion-maker cocked a brow at her and stepped over to one of the benches that held an elaborate network of glass and metal.

"A simple enough potion," he said: "Given how you come here I take it one of Venus' men sent you?" He waved his hand before anyone could reply: "No matter: there are certain ingredients that cannot be worked around. Do you have--" he stopped talking as Jiho went to Sun and yanked at the pack on his back as he yelped in protest: she got it open and reverently pulled out the roll of cloth containing the six locks of hair.

"Can't you use these?" She said, showing him.

"Ah. Yes, that would do it...though you will need to know which goes to which."

Jiho gave him an unimpressed look and stepped fearlessly next to him to lay out the cloth on the bench. "This is from Mihyun: this is Seunghee: this is Yewon: I know my sisters."

He smiled, just the slightest lifting of his mouth's corner. "That is good. That only leaves the matter of payment." He turned slowly and looked back at the others.

"No," Starlight said instantly, "You may _not_ have our Cedar."

"I am too old to play with dolls," the potion-maker said dismissively. "And I would have no use for keeping such an unflattering portrait on the premises anyway. No. All I would take in payment is a lock of hair, and some blood--not even enough to be missed."

Cedar opened his mouth to reply, and Laughter elbowed him in the gut. "No," he said curtly. "You may have none of his blood." The potion-maker didn't even look at him, continuing to stare at what he could see of Cedar beyond Kitten's spread arms.

"Then we are at an impasse," he said. "Because I won't work without payment--you understand."

Jiho made a frustrated noise and thudded her fist into the table. He looked back down at her, and she pulled off her red hairband and stepped even closer to him, ducking her head and parting her hair. He leaned over slightly and peered at the top of her head with clinical interest. "Ah. So that's what you are." The dolls with good enough vision saw that where they had been previously hidden in her hair, there was two small protrusions like horns.

She raked her hair back into place and crossed her arms over her chest, fearless and implacable. "We save them when they shed. All my sisters and I. We must have a hundred sets, all very fine, back at home."

"Ahh. So in payment, a hund--"

"I'm not giving you a hundred sets," she interrupted him, and he straightened and gave a coolly amused look at her nerve. "You may have sixty-eight."

"Sixty-eight sets of antlers, freely given by one of your kind," he confirmed, and she nodded. He held his chin in one hand and thought about it a moment. "...a vial of your blood as well," he said eventually. "It will lessen the material cost of the spell."

"Done," Jiho said before any of the dolls could speak up in protest, and held out her pale arm as though he expected him to take her blood immediately.

The potion-maker chuckled, and it sounded nothing like Cedar's laugh. He patted her arm, still amused, and went to a rack of tools against the wall without a look back. Jinho spun on her heels and went to the dolls with a brilliant smile. "You see? I can help them!"

"I'm glad you can help your sisters," Starlight said. "But are you sure...?"

"No, no, I have thought about it. You can go back and continue to look as we were before: I will wait for him to be finished with the potions and I will take them--here, give me the gold key you spoke about." With raised eyebrows, Starlight did so, and she took it from him and held it up. "I will take the short-cut to go and wake my sisters: I can also take the bit that we need from the mirror trap, and meet you at the witches' home near my woods."

The dolls exchanged glances (except for Cedar, who was not able to tear his eyes away from the potion-maker). "It makes sense," Brother said. "Only are you sure you'll be fine alone?"

"I am often alone," Jiho told him. "I will be well." She stepped forward and bowed shallowly to them, still smiling. "Thank you." She then went to Kitten, who was still watching the potion-maker carefully, and tugged at his sleeve until he bent down enough for her to kiss his cheek. He pulled back in surprise as she did it, and she folded her hands behind her back. "Your name is Kitten, right?" He nodded. "I won't forget." She inclined her head to him and went back to the bench of equipment.

"...does that mean she won't remember anyone else's name?" Sun said sotto-voice. "Hey. What does that mean. Isn't that bad manners? Starlight?"

"Her kind have different manners, I think," Starlight said, and went to Cedar to wrap him in both his arms. "Let's go, then, quickly. I don't like it here very much." Laughter, still holding tightly to Cedar's arm, snorted violently.

"Who would?" He asked.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MVs referenced: TVXQ's Rise as One 

  
They were not impeded as they went back, though the curtain-room and then through the door. As they went through it Laughter released a huge sigh, slumping in apparent relief.

"Feel 'cleaner' here?" Brother asked him, and he nodded. Kitten pulled Starlight away from Laughter and Cedar, pressing him towards Sun and giving Brother a significant look as he hooked a hand around Cedar's elbow. Brother understood him to mean that they were to look after the other four between the two of them and he nodded subtly, unreasonably pleased by the implicit show of trust. Stepping behind Sun and Starlight he patted them each on the back. "Should we go on? Through the tunnels? Laughter, would you--"

"Sometimes I think you only keep me around for my senses," Laughter grumbled, but obligingly shut his eyes and concentrated.

"Of course we don't!" "Of course that's not it!" Sun and Starlight chorused, as Cedar tucked his head into Laughter's shoulder. Laughter didn't acknowlegde them, though he dimpled deeply with a suppressed smile. "We love you no matter what," Starlight added earnestly.

"He knows that, Starlight," Brother said with a sigh. "You only say it _every single day_."

" _You_ should try saying it sometime, Brother," Starlight said with a pout. In response Brother only rolled his eyes and pinched him strongly on his unbruised shoulder, to which Starlight pouted harder and pinched him back. "And don't think I didn't notice that I'm being... _herded_."

"Are you still bleeding?" Brother said sweetly. Starlight's eyes rolled up as though he could see the bandage around his forehead, and Brother snorted. "Uh-huh. Maybe once you're fully healed you can go off on your own."

"...I think this way?" Laughter said slowly, pointing out.

"That's a wall, Laughter," Sun said helpfully. Brother coughed back a laugh.

Laughter opened his eyes. "Oh. Well, in that general direction, maybe? If the tunnels don't seem to be going right then we can go back."

Everyone looked to Starlight, and he nodded encouragingly. "We'll keep going then, and you can check every now and then to see if you think we're getting any closer." Laughter nodded, and Starlight added more quietly, "Are you okay, Cedar? He didn't scare you, right? It's strange that you look alike but I don't think it would be _dangerous_ at all, would it?"

Cedar shrugged one shoulder, frowning. "I wasn't...scared. But I didn't like it."

"I wouldn't either," Sun said. "Let's not ever see him again!"

"Certainly not," Starlight agreed. He started forward as if to lead the way down the hall, and Brother stopped him by way of standing in front of him. Kitten, who had _also_ not forgotten the scare Starlight had given them not even a day past, nodded to him and pulled at Laughter's arm.

"Come on," Kitten said. "Let's go on then."

They went: the tunnels had several branches and at each they had to stop and let Laughter try and feel out the correct one, and several times they backtracked when his first choice ended up bending towards the wrong directions. Laughter was in the lead, with Kitten right beside him and holding his sleeve at the elbow, while Brother brought up the rear with the other three in the middle. At one point in a corridor that looked nothing different than any of the others before, Laughter stopped in his tracks and the others froze as well. "Why, why, why?" Sun asked.

"Can't you feel that?" Laughter sounded disbelieving. "We just went through a door."

"But there's...no door?" Sun said. Laughter glared in his general direction and he threw up his hands as if to ward off the look. "Sorry! Sorry! But it honestly just looks the same!"

"It may look the same, but we're somewhere else." Laughter wrinkled his nose. "Maybe what we're looking for, actually. It does feel kind of like Amber's house."

"Well that's good," Sun said brightly, pulling out his map and squatting down for long enough to update it with the new door. "Let's just pick up a pebble and go back, then!"

"What pebble?" Brother said drily: and indeed the tunnel was as smooth and unbroken as the others had been.

"Maybe there's a room up ahead. Let's keep going."

 

* * *

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/27945731068/in/album-72157690281771110/)

* * *

 

The tunnel ended in a border of greenery, which Kitten and Laughter parted cautiously as the others looked through. The space beyond was a mix of straight artificial lines and creeping plant life, some great strange building in the process of being overtaken by nature. The air smelled oddand they all breathed it in as they looked around; Sun made a face. "It's weird! I kind of like it but I'm not sure. What's that smell?"

"Magic," Laughter said. "We are definitely in the right place."

"Let's grab something and go, then," Kitten said. Before anyone could reply, a high bright voice came from the shadows:

"Who are you?"

The dolls all craned around to see where the voice had come from. To the left, peeking out from behind a block of vine-covered machinery, were two very small persons.

"Hey! Baby people!" Sun cried, as Kitten's jaw dropped in delight and Starlight muffled a sound in his hands.

"We're not babies," the other small person said in outrage. "We're men!"

"But not right now," argued the first. "We're kids right now."

"Right," the second agreed. They both came out from the half-cover and looked at the dolls, one with arms crossed and the other with fists on his narrow hips. "This place is for kids. What do you want?"

"It's kind of hard to explain," Starlight said. He was trying not to smile, presumably to protect the childrens' dignity--Kitten had similarly flattened his expression out to something merely thrilled--but his eyes were absolutely glowing. "It's nice to meet you! We've never met kids before, not really--you said this place is for kids? We're only passing through. Would you be willing to show us around?"

"Well. Since you're only passing through." The kids came closer, the one who had spoken first going up to Starlight and offering his hand. Kitten had dropped into a crouch to not be so tall comparatively, and the other (slightly smaller) kid went up to him, Heart consenting to be introduced. "We've done a lot of work here--it has to be kept up, you know. So it doesn't stop running. I'll show you."

Kitten also held out his hand to the child in front of him. "I'd like to see your work, if you don't mind." He who was normally so wary of strangers was speaking in such warm tones that Brother's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline, and Laughter also cocked an ear and looked confused. Cedar seemed torn between caution and his enjoyment of all things cute, and Sun of course was already ready to go.

The kids led them off, each holding a hand of Starlight and Kitten, and the others followed behind. Evidently Kitten had gotten the quieter one, but Starlight and his companion were talking to each other like old friends; Starlight's tone of voice was unusual, similar to his 'comforting'/'teaching' tone but even more patient and pleased. It teased at the back of Brother's mind like a forgotten memory, and was making him feel oddly out of step with the others. The boys took them to each corner of the big overgrown building, showing strange assemblages of machinery, and while Brother hadn't _learned_ about machinery, he could tell that some of the devices had no business working as they did; wheels that spun without connecting to anything, levers with no real anchor, bits of electricity that went from one place to another with no clear path. At least it showed that they were in the right sort of place. At one point when Starlight and Kitten had allowed themselves to be led into a smaller space than the others wanted to go, Brother dropped into a squat and spent a moment scritching Heart's ears. "Left behind?" he whispered to her, and she cleaned her paws in a way that seemed to show that she didn't care either way. His hand was bigger than her whole body and he felt a rush of fondness for her. "Do you want to help?" he said, still quietly, and she looked away from him though her ears stayed swiveled in his direction. "We need to find a bit of something with the magic of this place. Then we can get to work freeing Amber, and your mom and brothers and sisters. Could you try and find something?"

She didn't suddenly start talking, but she did lick at his knuckles with a little sandpaper-y tongue that made him cough on a surprised laugh, and bounded off into the shadows with her white-tipped tail held high.

"Good conversation?" Laughter said drily, grinning in his direction.

"Sure," he said loftily, then grinned back, standing up and straightening his pants-legs.

"Kitten and Starlight sure are excited, huh?" Sun said. He was looking innocently at the ceiling but his tone made Brother feel weirdly exposed, which he ignored. "They're cute, but I don't get why they're so enamored."

"They are _very_ cute," Cedar offered.

"Was..." Brother scratched at the back of his neck. The others looked at him expectantly, and he joined Sun in looking at imaginary points of interest on the ceiling. "Was I that small? At first?"

Everyone looked at Laughter, and he shrugged. "Big and small aren't my strong suits," he said.

"I remember that you were littlest, but I can't recall what that looked like," Sun mused, and Cedar nodded. "Surely you weren't _that_ small! I'd think I would remember that."

"You could ask Starlight," Laughter said. "He'll know for sure." Brother hummed noncommittally. "But then maybe you shouldn't remind him of your cute stage, or he'll get _that way_."

"Clingy," Sun said, proud to be able to bring up the word, and Brother covered his laugh with the back of his hand.

"Brother is _still_ cute," Cedar said loyally, and Brother rolled his eyes but smiled at him.

 

The kids emerged from the narrow crack, with the two dolls behind them having to maneuver more carefully to make it through, and Starlight beamed at them as they came out.

"There's another building across the way, they say, we're going to look there next!" The kid next to him was grumbling as he tried to shake something out of his shoe, and Starlight lifted him up easily to sit on his hip. They went where they were led, which was to a big opening that released them to the outdoors, where everyone blinked in the bright sunlight for a while. The path was dirt and wound through the trees for a bit before coming out into another flat place with a building visible not too far off. The dirt path split off into a much broader road half-way down, which the boys did not comment on as they passed it: Brother stopped in interest, seeing something very interesting suspended in a shaft of sunlight that touched down where the new road split off.

It was some sort of butterfly, or moth perhaps--he didn't know the names of them very well, unlike Cedar who had apparently come into being with both a fear of insects and an instinctual knowledge of their many names--and it appeared half-frozen, its small yellow wings moving much too slowly to hold it in the air. He reached his hand out to it curiously when--

" _NO_!"

The shriek came from Kitten's boy, and everyone started and stared at him. He stomped towards Brother and got between him and the larger road, planting his hands against his legs and pushing as if he had any hope of moving him by strength. Brother allowed himself to be directed, staring at the other dolls in hopes that they would understand, but they looked just as baffled as he was. "Not that way," the boy on Starlight's hip said firmly. "We're not ready to wake up yet." He kicked at Starlight's leg, urging him to continue moving towards the building, and he did so with a wide-eyed look at Brother.

"Sorry," Brother said diplomatically. "I wasn't trying to...make trouble."

"I know," the kid who had yelled said, calmer now and kicking at the dirt of the road. "It's just...we've worked hard. To keep things running so we don't have to go back. We like being like this."

 

They reached the new building and entered, Starlight's boy wriggling until he was put down so that he could run to his friend and hold his small hand. "This one doesn't have as much we've worked on yet, but at first we--" he trailed off, blinking into the room, and Brother saw that he was looking at Heart, who was coming towards them with proud ears and tail, dragging something bigger than herself. "Is that..." Heart came up to Brother's feet and dropped her burden, sitting tall and curling her tail neatly around her feet. He reached down and picked up what she had brought them; a brown furry doll, very worn, with a bow around its neck and one button eye missing.

"Thank you," Brother said to Heart, who meowed back. "It's big, is that okay?" She stretched up until he got the idea and set the doll back down, at which point she freed the remaining eye with a few gnawing bites.

" _Urgh_ ," Cedar said, with feeling.

"I wondered where that went," Kitten's boy said, not bothered by the doll's eyeless state, picking it up and squishing it briefly before patting it on the head and setting it back down. "You can have the button if you like. I don't need teddies any more." Brother picked up the button and showed it to the others.

"That should do," Laughter said.

"Does that mean we leave now?" Sun said, his lower lip pouting out as he tugged at his sweater-cuffs. "I'm tired, though. I don't know if it's because the kid talked about waking up but I really want to sleep now."

"You shared a lot of energy with me," Starlight said, going up to him and squeezing him around the shoulders. "Of course you're tired." Sun made an unconvincing face and leaned away much too weakly to actually break free.

"There's a couch," Kitten's boy offered. "We're already asleep so we don't do more than just rest a little but you can use it for a bit if you want. We need to run and grab some more stuff for this building anyway." His friend nodded, and Kitten went to Starlight and grabbed his wrist, probably struck anew with the memory of Starlight's hurts now that he was distracted from the fascinating kids. Starlight smiled at him patiently, releasing Sun to pat his bandaged hand.

"Thank you, then. It won't hurt to rest a bit before we go back."

The boys led them to the couch, which was about as ratty as Starlight's had been back in his cell, then left them alone. Kitten made Starlight take the center of the couch by crowding him until he had to sit down, then sat on the floor beside it, automatically cradling Heart as she stepped lightly into his lap. The other dolls settled around them, either on the couch or the floor; Brother ended up on the floor by one of the couch's arms. Laughter got a prime spot next to Starlight, giggling at something he didn't explain to them, and he was the first to drop off, followed swiftly by Cedar and Sun. For a while it was just Brother, Kitten, and Starlight awake, as Kitten petted Heart and Starlight did the same to Sun who had put his head in his lap. Brother picked at a scab on the back of his hand thoughtfully, not feeling particularly tired, and looked up when Kitten slumped, finally asleep with his head tilted back against Starlight's leg.

 

"I thought we were going to have to knock him out," Starlight murmured. His eyes were smiling, and he nodded towards Kitten just in case Brother might have missed his meaning. He reached down carefully and lifted his hands into his lap.

"It's just us here," Brother said. "And the children. It would be hard for them to hurt us."

Starlight hummed in agreement, gently stroking Kitten's bandaged hands. "I wonder if it's just habit," he said after a long pause. "That we only talk like this at night. It's not like it's _secrets_."

"Habit. Because that's what we did before?" Brother frowned down at his feet where they were crossed at the ankles in front of him. "I just wish that she would _leave_ us. We left _her_ \--why does she still control us?"

"In what way?" Starlight said, concerned. "You feel like she's controlling you?"

"Well, what else would you call it?" Brother said evenly. "Apart from you and Sun, no one talks about...soft things, in the day time. That's because of her. Kitten is so scared all the time because of her. Laughter can't see the ground under his feet because of her. I bite my knuckles till they bruise because I have to check if I'm awake, because not hurting is not normal, because of her." He felt desperately sad suddenly, somehow. "She _made_ us. How can we ever really be away from that?"

"She didn't make you clever," Starlight said. Brother didn't dare meet his eyes but he knew he was smiling softly as he said it. "She didn't make Cedar kind. She didn't make us good. We are a lot of things that she didn't make us."

" _You_ made us good," Brother said, looking up through his lashes. "You said...before, back in the fire room, in the edifice that smelled like fear...you said you owe me thanks? Not half as much as I owe you." Starlight's eyes were becoming wet, though he was still smiling, and Brother had to swallow before he could continue. "You looked after me, when I was small like those children. You loved me before I knew what it meant. I..." He looked down at his feet again, rested his hands in his lap. "Thank you. And I love you."

"I love you too," Starlight said, sounding strangled; then, as Brother opened his mouth he added " _If you say '_ I know' _I will throw Sun at you_."

"You couldn't," Brother said with dignity, then as Starlight's eyes sharped with purpose he hastily repented, saying, "Sorry! Sorry! I mean, thank you." Starlight settled back, the glint fading and leaving just an incandescent smile behind.

"Come here so I don't have to wake anyone up," he ordered, and Brother rolled his eyes but did as he was told: when he was close enough Starlight reached up and dragged him in reach to press three quick, slightly teary kisses to his cheek. Brother let him do it, and hid a smile as he settled back in his former seat.

"I don't understand you," Brother said, smiling into his knuckles.

"But you do _love_ me," Starlight said very smugly, and closed his eyes, resting his head against the back of the couch. "You said so. You can't take it back now."

"I _wouldn't_ take it back," Brother said, offended. Starlight made a happy noise, and then they were both asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MVs referenced: B1A4's Sweet Girl; Astro's Breathless, Baby, and 니가 불어와; Oh My Girl's Closer and Windy Day; VIXX's Eternity. 

 

 

  
When they all awoke there was no sign of the kids returning, even when Starlight and Kitten called for them. Kitten looked very regretful, and Sun patted him on the back firmly. "Well, maybe you can come visit some time? I don't see why not! And Brother wants to learn about how the machinery works."

"I do?" Brother said, astonished, and blink-blink-blinked for a moment. "Huh...I guess I do." He was biting at his knuckles absent-mindedly, and Starlight drew them away from his mouth with a loving glare.

"See? That's two reasons to come back! Don't sulk, Kitten."

"I'm not sulking," Kitten said, sulkily, and Laughter burst into infectious giggles that had Kitten looking at him narrowly and sidling over to gently knuckle his head downwards.

They went back to the building they'd come on from, giving the forbidden road a wide berth, and filed into the door. Cedar made a fretful face as they went in and he felt the bare grey walls seem to close in on him. "Ugh. I don't think I like these kind of places as much as I like being outdoors."

"But there's more bugs outdoors," Sun pointed out.

"Outdoors is where they live," Cedar replied primly. "I don't want them _on_ me, but it's where they live. I can't blame them for that. Indoors is for _people_ , not bugs!" Sun laughed at him, but also hooked his arm through his elbow, and Cedar leaned against his shoulder happily. He always had had a particular soft spot for Sun. He was going to say something else, but as they came around a curve in the tunnel they all stopped in surprise.

"What took you so long?" Jiho said, arms crossed as she gave them a look rather like the look _she_ has used to have when things were just starting to go not quite as she'd wanted. Unlike _her_ , though, the look didn't last long on Jiho's face before it was replaced by a smile, which Cedar returned in relief. "We should get moving! We still need to save Yoobin...and your witches."

"Hello!" Out from behind Jinho stepped another girl, smaller, in a short white dress. She was smiling all over her face and she bounced up and down as she clapped her hands. "Oh! You were right, Jiho, they are very tall, and rather...well, but that doesn't matter!" Cedar wouldn't have thought it was possible for her to smile _more_ , but she did, stepping forwards and holding out a hand that wavered back and forth as though she couldn't decide which doll to give it to. "You've been helping our Jiho? Thank you!"

"Oh, one of the sisters," Brother said in sudden realization, and Starlight beamed and stepped out to shake the small girl's hand.

"She woke you up! That is good news. What do you mean 'so long', it's barely been a day though?"

"It has been _several_ days," Jiho said pointedly. "I went and saved them and came back and we've been _waiting_." Her sister giggled.

"We knew we were going someplace where time was...well." Laughter shrugged, and the other dolls made noises of understanding.

Sun gave vent to a disgusted sound. " _Days_ went by and we _missed_ it? I don't like it! We have to catch up. We got a piece from the place, Jiho, so now we only need one more and Amber and them can do the thing to free themselves, and your mirror sister too!"

"That's actually why we're waiting," the small sister said. Her smile hadn't faded at all, and her voice was really very cute. "We found something, or our Jiho did, with help, and we think it's the solution to that problem--come with us and we'll show you!" She clasped her hands under her chin and met eyes with each of them. "Our Jiho would have been alone if it wasn't for you, we can't thank you enough."

" _Hyojung_ ," Jiho said, flustered.

"Oh, it was more like she was helping us, really," Cedar said, and scratched at the back of his neck. "Go where?"

Jiho held up a familiar gold key proudly. "Shortcut!"

 

* * *

 

They came out into _Sweet Girl_ and there was a minor pile-up at the magic door as the dolls were set back on their heels by the sheer number of people inside. A cluster of girls clad in red and white had taken over several tables near the door and were chattering brightly together: other tables had people they didn't recognize, talking among themselves and drinking brightly colored drinks: and Junghwan and someone they didn't know were on the stage doing something with the equipment up there. As the dolls all exited the shortcut door, with the sisters behind them, the other girls sprang up from their tables and came to greet them, talking all at once in a mix of high excited voices. "Our Jiho" was one of the only things the dolls could hear clearly, as Jiho was grabbed by the one with pale hair and fussed over like Starlight fussed over the younger dolls when given the chance. Cedar by instinct grabbed Sun by the elbow, although the girls didn't seem particularly dangerous, and tried without success to understand what was going on.

"You're back!" It was Junghwan, and he jumped down from the stage (followed by his friend) to rush over and grin at them. "We have been--this is Seonwoo, by the way!--we have been planning this, but thought we'd better wait til you're here to--but now we can start!" He looked at the girls. "Can one of you pretty ladies--"

"I'll get the others," one of them said, lightly dancing away to the hallway full of doors: and "I'll go to the soda pop store!" another said, grabbing Hyojung's hand and dragging her with to the exit. Jiho was still being petted by two of her sisters, and Cedar was surprised to see that she looked younger and softer than he would have ever thought her capable of being...but then he imagined being alone, for who knew how long, with his brothers missing and no way to know what had happened to them, and had to swallow back a few tears.

"You are such a sap," Laughter whispered at his back, and Cedar scrubbed his hand across his eyes and reached back to hit him in his leg.

"We'll explain everything when everyone's here," Seonwoo said in a much deeper voice than his soft face would have suggested he'd have. "Just hang on, look around if you like: come on, Junghwan, let's get the customers out of here so we can get to work."

"Bet I can make 'em leave with less ill-will than you," Junghwan said to Seonwoo, winking at Sun and going towards one of the occupied tables. Between the two of them they managed to get the normal people up and out the exit; they seemed confused but not upset. The remaining three men who owned the place came out of the hallway, fetched by the girl, and Starlight dragged Kitten with him to go say hello and the other dolls started to slowly find their way around the crowded room. Cedar went a little ways away as Sun was claimed by Junghwan, still not quite used to the number of people involved, and just watched for a bit. Before too long, Jiho came up along with one of her sisters to stand beside him. The sister, who introduced herself as Seunghee, was one of the smallest, and her wide eyes took him in and accepted him entirely in the same moment. They stood in companionable silence for a while, until one of the _Sweet Girl_ men's voices rang out above the babble, calling something to one of the sisters.

Jiho and Seunghee exchanged a look that Cedar didn't understand at all, and he asked carefully, "Is something wrong?"

"They keep calling us pretty," Jiho grumbled.

"But aren't you?" Cedar asked, and was immediately pinned by two narrow stares.

" _You_ aren't making fun, are you?" Seunghee asked.

"No," he said. "Was I? We're still-- _I'm_ still learning about the things that make people beautiful."

They stared for a moment longer but evidently decided to believe him. With quick glances around that showed that no one else was watching closely, they tilted their heads forward and parted their hair to show the little nubs on the top of their heads.

"Your horns make you not beautiful?" He asked.

"They're not _horns_ ," Jiho said in a voice of acid scorn. "They're antlers."

"And they're still so _small_ at this time of the season," Seunghee wailed, but softly. "They haven't even cut the velvet!"

"So you will be beautiful when they're big?" He still didn't understand, though not for lack of trying.

"Yes," Jiho said.

"Some of us more than others," Seunghee said, prodding Jiho in the side. She swatted the hand down and poked back.

"Yours _are_ beautiful. They always branch into such nice shapes!"

"So, wait," Cedar asked. "Do you think everyone without antlers is un-beautiful?" They exchanged another look, this one pretty definitely guilty.

"...I'm sure you are very handsome among your own kind," Seunghee finally said, encouragingly. "And besides, everyone knows that people with good hearts can't be ugly, and you must have a good heart to have helped our little Jiho like you did."

"I am _four inches taller than you_ ," Jiho complained, and there might have been an argument but the outside door opened and the missing sisters returned with Jinjin and his brothers behind them, and Jinyoung's voice rang out over everyone's to call them to the stage.

 

* * *

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/42083604631/in/album-72157690281771110/)

* * *

 

Kitten had been silently, stubbornly trying to scrape Starlight's hand off his for a while now, and Starlight finally let him escape because the close crowd would probably be too much and he liked to tease, not upset. Kitten retreated, Heart on his shoulder sitting pretty and somewhat sabotaging the effect of his huff, and waited a few steps back from the back of the crowd. Jinjin's quiet brother, Rocky, stood near to him and Kitten tolerated it. On stage, Jinyoung waved at everyone, a little awkwardly, with a little twisty smile. "Before we work on what we plan to do--Seonwoo, you want to make sure we're all on the same page?" Seonwoo looked surprised at first, but got up on the stage without hesitating and smiled at everyone much less awkwardly than Jinyoung.

"Ah! Yes, hello. Just so everyone knows what's going on, the problem is that--"

Starlight tuned him out slightly, since he already knew what was going on, and watched everyone curiously. The sisters (one or the other of them) kept calling out _we know_ when Seonwoo said something they already knew, and he made a face at them each time but kept explaining--mostly for Jinjin's people, probably. Starlight saw that Dongwoo was watching Seonwoo speak with a very soft face; Dongwoo saw that he was caught, and gave Starlight a slightly sheepish smile. _Isn't he cute?_ he mouthed, and Starlight nodded with enthusiasm. No one could be as cute as his brothers, of course, but Seonwoo's sweetness was very lovable, and he tried to communicate that in his look back at Dongwoo.

 

"--right, hyung?" He heard, and realized that Seonwoo had finished his explanation.

"Right," Dongwoo said, and went to the stage; rather than standing on it, he sat on the edge. "So that's where we are; and that's where we want to go." He pointed past them all and everyone craned their heads around in a way that was probably rather funny to watch: Jinjin had ended up behind several dolls and he jumped up in the air to get a glimpse. What he pointed at were the three doors at the back of the room.

"The stuck door," Laughter said, and Dongwoo nodded at him

"Exactly. When our young deer friend came through first and explained a little of what was going on, Channie had an idea." Chanshik, standing between Laughter and Jinyoung, waved in acknowledgement. "You see, _something_ was causing the door to 'stick'...we'd had theories, since it happened, but we suddenly considered that a very good explanation would be that it had connected to a place like these 'looped' places."

"So it connected to a place like the witch's house and couldn't disconnect?" Starlight asked.

"Exactly!" Junghwan cried, nudging through the crowd to stand by Dongwoo. "Once we thought of that...well. Doors are something of a speciality of hyung's."

"Kind of," Dongwoo said modestly.

"So what do you need us for?" Jinjin spoke up, pitching his voice to carry. He saw Starlight looking at him and grinned with a thumbs-up.

"Human chain," Jinyoung said mysteriously. "Or, well...human-and-other-persons chain."

"It's no point just throwing a rope or something in," Chanshik said, much more helpfully. "You need to grab the bit of stuff that works as a spell reagent. And it can't really be just a random bit of rock or something, either...it needs to be something that's had more...exposure."

"Something that's been handled works well," Dongwoo said, "Or something that's important. So a pair of well-used scissors is better than a decorative statuette, unless the statuette has enormous sentimental value. Well, unless--"

"That's where we come in, right?" Jiho interrupted him, and her sisters giggled around her (except the youngest who was very wide-eyed and serious).

"Right," Junghwan said, giving her a thumbs-up. "We wouldn't want someone to just walk in, or they probably wouldn't walk out. But if someone walks in and they're anchored by someone--and _they're_ anchored by someone--and _they're_ anchored by someone--"

"People chain!" Sun said. "I get it!"

"Right! Channie has done some...ah..."

"Some very dull math," Chanshik offered, and Junghwan and Jinyoung both barked laughs. "Really. The details might put you to sleep."

"Without putting anyone to sleep: with everyone here, we should stretch far enough, and have a strong enough anchor." Jinyoung crossed his arms and nodded firmly. "Any questions?"

"Does it matter what order we're in?" Kitten said, and Jinyoung craned his neck at the quiet voice.

"Not really? I am going to help anchor it, with Jinyoung, and actually ah...Laughter?" He nodded that the name was right and Dongwoo continued: "Laughter would also probably do well--as anchors, that is. At this end of the chain."

"Well, smaller people should be at the far end," Seunghee said sensibly. "So it's easier to anchor us, 'cause we're not as heavy."

"That's you, Jinjin!" Sanha blurted, and was pulled down and prodded thoroughly for his attitude. Starlight hid his laugh in his hands.

"I'll be first," Hyojung said--Starlight didn't think she had stopped smiling since they'd first met her, and right now was no exception. Some of her sisters started to object, and she put her hands on her hips. "I'm the oldest of us," she told her sisters firmly, "And I'm one of the smallest too. I should definitely be at the tip."

"Me next," Seunghee said, and two other equally small sisters chimed in.

"I'll go after that," Starlight said. Kitten looked at him narrowly, and he ignored him and put his hands on his hips. In a voice too light to be truly mocking, he said "'I'm the oldest of us, and I'm one of the smallest, too'. I should be next and you know it." Reassuringly to the four girls who would be ahead, he said, "I'm strong, too, so I'll help hold us together."

"Prove it," Laughter said, quiet enough he may have meant only Cedar beside him to have heard it, but Starlight couldn't let it slide and went up to him. He scooped him up under the knees and back and held him aloft as Laughter yelped and then dissolved into giggles. Cedar laughed, too, which made Starlight feel very smug as he shook Laughter lightly then set him down.

"That looks convincing to me," Jinjin said. "I'll be next."

"Then me." MJ puffed out his chest, planted his fists on his hips, and said in a sing-songy voice that was _definitely_ teasing: "'I'm the _old_ est of us and I'm one of the _small_ est too!'"

"Actually, _I_ want to be right behind Starlight. One of _us_ has to have your back, Starlight," Sun said. He made a silly face as he said it, but Starlight could tell that he was deadly earnest. He went and patted his soft cheeks.

 

The order after that fell out quite naturally, with just a few arguments about why this or that combination would be the best. As that went on Starlight went to each doll individually and hugged them, short but clinging; they all protested, but no one fought him--not even Laughter or Brother. So they must have been wondering if this would work, as well. Starlight thought about what it would be like if they, too, got stuck, and a zip of unpleasant cold went up his spine at the thought--to imagine being caught in a loop of time, unable to really move forward, having all your growth suspended and unable to reach beyond the present moment. He had to believe his own words from before--and recall that trying to live setting themselves apart from risk would be a lot like putting _themselves_ in cages. "May as well move forward," he murmured to himself, and drew his confidence about himself to take his place near the front of the line.

He heard, in passing, Dongwoo introducing himself very courteously to Heart, saying, "Would you mind helping us with the anchoring, miss? There's some things that only a cat can do, after all." If she responded it wasn't in a language Starlight understood: but she jumped lightly down from Kitten's shoulder and stepped out with her tail held proudly high to join the others.

"Be careful, dear," Kitten called after her worriedly: and she didn't turn but did flick her tail just a little in acknowledgement.

The four front-most girls had worked out how they would hold each other, with each wrapping her arms around the waist of the girl in front and weaving her fingers together into a strong hold. Hyojung, at the front, was waving her hands absently in the air and humming something under her breath, ever so slightly nervous: she beamed and waved as he came up. "Right behind our Shi-ah, please! Just hold her like we're doing." It took some maneuvering to get the same grip, since they were considerably shorter than him, but he managed it--then laughed as Sun crashed into his back and squeezed him like a vice.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Sun chanted as the rest of everyone fell into place behind him. "This is exciting! And terrifying! I want to get it over with, let's go, let's go...."

"We're going!" Junghwan called out from farther back in the line. "Remember--you can't think of this like a normal Door, we won't step straight out, and the in-between might be a little...strange."

"Took the words right out of me," Dongwoo said. "Just hold tight! And signal back when everyone needs to start pulling backwards."

"I'm going!" Hyojung said, slightly shrill, and slowly shuffled forwards.

There was a small disaster before they even entered the door as most of them failed to move together smoothly and there was a commotion and stagger-step as some people fell: everyone stopped, and laughed, and even as he flinched a little at the volume of it Starlight could feel the tension in the line fade a little in the face of their collective laughter. "Step together," he managed to say, still chuckling. "Left, right, left right."

"Like a dance!" Jinyoung called out.

"What's a dance?" Several dolls asked; and "I'll show you _later_ ," Rocky responded a few people back from Starlight.

This time the progress was smoother, though Starlight found himself having to concentrate fairly hard to walk steadily and not tread on the heels of the girl in front of him; then they were through the door in the back of the room. Behind it was...nothing. They were walking on something, and there were people before and behind them but the everywhere else he looked there was nothing but a void of featureless black. It made him feel queasy enough that he stopped looking, and fixed his eyes instead on Hyojung's head at the front of the line. Sun behind him pulled himself closer. "It's very dark," he said: his loud voice was flattened and drained by the dead air, even right next to Starlight's ear, and it trembled a little. "I like the sunlight better. But, well, dark is okay too, isn't it? It can be comforting, right? What's the word...cozy! This isn't very cozy though, Starlight."

Starlight didn't think his voice would be even as clear as Sun's, so he just tipped his head back to rest against Sun's for a moment--then focused forward once more.

The darkness got darker, and the silence deeper. Sun's chest vibrated against his back like he was talking, but nothing could be heard: even the dull sounds of steps had faded. He could still feel Sun at his back, and his arms around Shi-ah's waist, but all he could see on every side was blackness. His breath was coming shorter, and he tried to fight it under control: then he was startled by the sudden realization that something was echoing back from the blackness around them that was not sound. It was not a sight, or a feeling, or a smell, but it was a little like each of them; maybe it was what Laughter felt, when he felt the magic around him? Then the realization of what it was came to him...thoughts. (and maybe it wasn't even him that realized that, but the echo of someone else's insight) The slow almost insubstantial line didn't move for a minute as they all got used to the echoes, which were so intangible it was impossible to pick out something as solid as a word.

Some things that Starlight felt, he had known--like Cedar's sweetness and Brother's steadiness--and some he had suspected--Junghwan's curiosity, Jinjin's patience. An impenetrable force of optimism in Jinyoung: a strangely harmonious mix of determination and playfulness in Seunghee. Then there were some things he would never have guessed at. Some of them were heartbreaking: a core of deep sadness in Hyojung; a huge solid weight of inadequacy on Sun; a profound unspoken terror in Laughter that he was too disconnected from the rest of them to ever really belong. Some of them were inspiring--even the same things: Hyojung's sadness that strengthened her smile rather than lessening it; Sun's better self which grew through and past the inadequacy like grass growing through old concrete; an equally unspoken and powerful love that Laughter held for them all. Sun leaned more heavily into his back, and the vibrations of his muffled speech sounded like _oh, Starlight_ , and Starlight wondered suddenly what he himself was sending out to echo back. He hoped it was a good sort of something. He couldn't hug him back, even turn and smile at him: so he just drew in a huge deep gulp of air so that Sun's arms tightened further against his expanding ribcage.

 

* * *

 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/154914812@N05/42083604811/in/album-72157690281771110/)

 

* * *

 

They were moving forward again (he admired the four girls in front who were able to move first), and the nothingness around them was becoming slightly less oppressive. The echoes faded, and Starlight felt a mixture of sadness and relief. It was still dark, but he could see his own arms again, then where they held the girl in front of him, then all the way to Hyojung's head which was bent forwards like someone walking into a strong wind. The vibrations of Sun's speech were now backed by the faintest audible words as well, and Starlight forced his eyes past the head of the line to see what was in front of them. A door: or rather a doorway: or rather a rectangular opening in the blackness. Hyojung passed through first, moving as laboriously as though she was dragging the line forcefully behind her. When Starlight stepped through as well he groaned deep in his chest, also feeling the drag of whatever this place was trying to stop him moving.

It was a large room, lit blue-white and with creeping shadows under everything. The things in the room, walls and roof and lights and furniture, were quite solid--except for the creep of the shadows across them--but the room was filled with uncanny ghostly presences, blurs that were at times almost person-shaped but then more like streaks of interrupted light. There was no disturbed air as would be expected if there were things moving very fast within the room: in fact the air was almost as still as the non-air in the blackness through the door. The whole place was filled with a low thrum of bizarre noise, a noise that suggested words like Sun's vibration against his back did. The line stopped slowly, and Hyojung and her sisters looked around as Starlight was doing, trying to find the bit of something that they could take back with them. The second sister back from Hyojung steered her with effort towards a point nearer the center of the room, and Starlight tried to identify what she'd seen. There was some kind of strange furniture there, a stand with a paper on it, and a chair in front of it: as he watched, the paper filled with a black-sketched image of a beautiful woman's face, before the paper disappeared and the chair in front of it seemed emptier than before. Hyojung came almost directly up to it and crouched down, causing her sisters to bend awkwardly with her. When she straightened, it was with a heavy-weighted but triumphant spring, and signaled back with the pinch of elbows and twist of body that had been decided on as the sign to go back.

It took a long time for the signal to make it all the way down the line, but Starlight felt Sun pull away from where he was plastered against his back and start to tug backwards. It was ever so much harder to go back than it had been to go in. "Oh, it feels like trying to work against the doll," Starlight moaned, not sure if Sun could hear him, almost hoping he couldn't; but it did, like that old dreaded feeling of knowing that he could only move this far, no further, before that invisible force would drag him to a stop. Sun's hands around his middle were suffocatingly tight, and Starlight laboriously shifted his own grip on the smaller person in front of him, moving his arm from her middle to instead strap across her pelvis and hopefully leave her free to breathe. For a few strangled breaths it seemed like they wouldn't be able to move at all--they would be as stuck as was the door to this place--he felt like he was slowing down, or speeding up, and for a moment the thrum in the air coalesced into sound and there was a translucent but clearly visible figure seated before the thing, the piano, to their right. Then Sun's hands around his ribs yanked back so suddenly he felt his bones creak and they were moving backwards, flying almost, everyone almost tripping over each other's legs and Starlight accidentally lifting the girl in front of him clear off her feet. Going back through it they moved too fast to feel the echoes--then they were out, back in the real world, and collapsing into a massive pile-up of gasping bodies.

 

Above it all, and the questions of the 'anchors' who had stayed to this side of the door, Hyojung's bright voice sang out, "I got it! It's a pencil! That will work, right?"

"We got it! We got it!" MJ crowed, and "That was TERRIBLE," Sun and Junghwan chorused, and "You're _squashing_ me," from multiple muffled voices to the bottom of the pile.

The girl Starlight was holding had landed on top of him with her little buds of antlers pressing uncomfortably into his cheek, but she was screaming with laughter and scrambling up with triumph on her heart-shaped face. "I _knew_ it," she said, and Jiho's voice somewhere in the pile said, "Let's _go_ , we still need to save Yoobin," and Dongwoo said in a diffident voice that didn't match the atmosphere at all, "I do kind of want to meet the witches." Starlight laid still as the four girls who had been in front sorted themselves out, stepping on him a little in their eagerness but too light for the steps to really hurt, and the pile started to dissolve and free the people trapped underneath. A pair of boots stopped right over his head and he tilted his head back to look up into Kitten's wide-eyed face where it hovered high above him.

"Nothing bad happened, Kitten," he said, and felt himself smiling so widely that it was sure to make his cheeks ache. Kitten slowly, slowly started to smile back. He reached down a hand to help Starlight up and Starlight, moved by a spirit of mischief borne from happiness and relief, instead braced himself and used the offered hand to pull Kitten down on top of him. Kitten landed with a shocked _oof_ of expelled air, but he didn't stop smiling--and actually started to laugh, a timid and squeaky sound but one of the most beautiful Starlight had ever heard.

"Hey, I think we fixed the door," Jinyoung said from somewhere: and from nearby, Sun grumbled,

"I still haven't seen any dinosaurs."

"I knew things would work out, somehow. If we kept trying," Starlight said quietly to himself, and gloried in the press of warm friendly bodies around him, and closed his eyes: and still smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Thank you for reading, and please comment and let me know what you think! I don't know that I'll write more, but 'the story goes on', and I like to think the boys deserve to keep having adventures--as long as they have each other, and people to have them with, and a place to go afterwards, well, doesn't that sound like a happy ending? ^^ 


End file.
